Personally, I'd add a full bath upstairs, with a tub, and rearrange the kitchen/bath to a powder room (no tub). I'd also reconfigure it so that you don't have the bathroom door opening directly into the kitchen.

If you are considering selling the home in the future, you need at least one bathtub, preferably where the bedrooms are on the second floor.

That’s interesting, thanks Diana. Where would you put the bathroom upstairs?

So W/C it ha ha. Would you go for an en-suite upstairs or a full bathroom? If the latter, where? (without losing a bedroom or going crazy on reconfiguration)

I don't see how you can add an en-suite bath upstairs without ditching a bedroom. I also think this will be really expensive to do. Anyone sleeping in other bedrooms should have access to a shower or bath that isn't through the master bedroom. So if you add an en suite, you will still need a shower or bath somewhere else in your house. If this isn't your forever home, why do you want to make this change?

Unless you are making the footprint larger, I don't see much space upstairs to add a bathroom without making the bedrooms much smaller, and they aren't that large to begin with. You could convert the smallest bedroom into a bathroom. Downstairs you could move the sink next to the toilet, remove the tub, and then make the other end of the room storage. Then your powder room could open into a small hallway instead directly onto the kitchen.

Something to think about is that what is labeled as Conservatory could in the future became a downstairs bedroom. Unless you gave up the smaller bedroom there is no space as others have mentioned for a bathroom upstairs. You also need to think future for when your child/children are teens which will be here sooner than you think. Would you really want them using a bathroom in the master bedroom?

If you really, really need a bath on the second floor why not just make bedroom 3 into one- youd have water line from kitchen right underneath - and then use the first floor bath for a small study or something. Of course then youd have to walk upstairs to use the toilet but whooooo caresssss. The average American could use the excercise, esp wth the pandemic pounds added on, and that is a very small house - the idea that it would need a second bathroom is kind of absurd.

Ooh I love the idea of a conservatory attached to house - Id probably live in there esp during our cold WI winter with a little pellet stove going - sigh!

Two reasons for the bathroom being upstairs: 1. I have a young child so having her parade up and down the stairs at night terrifies me 2. The opinion of my local estate agent is that it’ll sell better if the bathroom is upstairs (considering I’d be moving on in the next 4 years, adding value is super key).

It’s not my forever home and so, all being well, my daughter and I won’t be here in her teens so I won’t have to worry about her using the en-suite if I was to go with that option.

Would love people’s thoughts

I would put a bathroom into what is the bedroom 3 as it really is too small to be a good bedroom and would serve the upstairs much better as a bathroom. Adding an en-suite bathroom won't be worth the money because people who are looking to purchase will think it odd to have to walk through a bathroom to use the other and only having one bedroom with access to it. Most want both bedrooms to have access. I would discount your home for the cost of adding a bath into the 3rd tiny bedroom if I was a buyer.

A downstairs bath is nice, but don't find the tub to be a necessity there with the size of the home.

Where do you sit and eat in this home?

Yep, convert the small bedroom to a bathroom with a tub. Then I would do what Diana said to the bathroom downstairs - make it a small powder room and perhaps reclaim the extra room for a pantry or a small eat-in area. I always think it's weird to have a full bath on a floor with no bedrooms.

I would make bedroom 3 a bathroom, and since it would a decent sized one, I would also put laundry up there on the bedroom level. I would leave the bathroom on the main level a full bath. Even if you add the bath upstairs, I would definitely keep the full bath downstairs since you have the space and plumbing for it - it's really nice for guests to have their own shower, and not share yours. If you're a dog owner or a gardener, it's also really nice to have a bath tub close to the outside entrance.

I’ve never understood a full bathroom on a floor with no bedrooms.

You will appreciate that full bathroom when you are ill or disabled and can't use the stairs.

HALLETT & Co. it can be useful depending on the size of the house. my brother-in-law has that setup, and it's the bath that guests use. they only have room for two bathrooms in their entire house, so keeping one on the first floor is handy for anyone to use, any time.

Making an assumption or two. You do not currently own the house and it is probably in the United Kingdom because of the way the floors are designated. Perhaps unless the housing situation is really tight you should look for a house with the bathroom where you need it. It could be less expensive than remodeling this one.

they own this one.

I suspect that you are in the UK. I'm a huge fan of Escape to the Country.

Most Americans will not understand that many homes in the UK do not have the bathing and toileting arrangements that would be considered absolutely necessary in the US. As an real property appraiser, I would call this arrangement an functional obsolescence. This arrangement in the US would have a lot of trouble selling. But, you are in the UK and this is not an unusual arrangement.

I love the conservatories that I see in the show. In the States we would refer to conservatories as three season rooms. Turning the space into a bedroom is not all that feasible. Temporary overnight guests might be able to use it.

Given that this not your forever home, I suggest that you do nothing to the downstairs bathroom. No reason to spend money in that area. It works. That's all that I would do other than paint or wall paper. I would covert bedroom 3 into a full bath servicing the other two upstairs bedrooms. A WC with shower stall and sink would be enough. Adding a bathtub will require a lot more engineering and load planning. That costs money. Your daughter will start to shower as she gets older. You have a tub to use downstairs as long as she requires a tub.

Before I went to all that trouble, have your estate agent pull up comparable sales in the area of two bedroom versus three bedroom homes of similar sizes and ages. Will the market punish you if you lose a bedroom? I would be very surprised if you would be rewarded for the expense of installing the second bath. Breaking even would be the best that you could expect.

If you did install an upstairs bath, it would make the home much more livable. You might find yourself staying there much longer than you planned because it will better suit the needs to two persons. If that is a possibility, I'd advise doing it and enjoying a better quality of life.

How old is this child, and wouldnt she soon reach an age where she's able to go down stairs without having to worry she'll fall and get hurt? You could just approach it as a temporary measure - composting toilets are a lot better these days!

Reality check: Sorry but there just isnt room to add a full bath on 2nd floor without losing either Bedroom 3 or an equivalent amount of space out of Bedroom 1 Any gain in value by having a second bathroom will be offset by loss of living/sleeping space on the 2nd floor. How will you divide up Bedroom 1 without messing up the large front window which I assume is a prominent feature of the exterior of the house.

I'm laughing at the comments about how weird it is to have a full bathroom on the ground floor with no bedrooms... I lived in an 18th century house in Edinburgh when I was in grad school. 4 big bedrooms, 3 stories, no insulation or double-paned windows, one teensy toilet crammed under the stairs on the ground floor, one grimy shower room down the hall. My bedroom was on the top floor. The stairs were stone. It was a long, cold trip down to the bathroom in the middle of the night. ;)

Hi guys! Thank you all for the suggestions We’ve decided to split the master bedroom to create a small upstairs bathroom. According to our local estate agent making the master bedroom a little smaller won’t be an issue.

Downstairs we are replacing the bathroom with a W/C and potentially a shower (if space permits).Removing the bath downstairs also means we can extend the kitchen a little to the right.

Hope that makes sense!

Well, its not "a little smaller", its quite a bit smaller - about 7.5 x 10 considering wall thickness. Its your house of course and ultimately your choice to make but we will have our opinions - its what we do!

Emily- I know right? Had to laugh at one post above which lamented a relative having "only" two bathrooms - only in America would two bathrooms be considered a hardship, instead of the luxury they would be in most places aroud the world. Im confounded by real estate listings Im seeing that have more bathrooms than bedrooms. I once lived in an old 1800s farmhouse that had wood heat and no indoor toilet - no liquids after 7 pm took care of that little problem just fine!

I'm afraid you're making the place less desirable by taking that action and also more costly to do. Even if it is in a UK market. 2 good sized bedrooms with a shared bathroom allows much more flexibility than having the tiny 3rd bedroom and another tiny bedroom with an attached bath that is not accessible for anyone else.

Actually really like the idea someone posted of making the bath in bedroom 3 along with laundry. Bedroom 3 is so close to the kitchen and existing bathroom so no need to run plumbing all the way across the house and you'd be saving money.

The new master if you carve out a bath in there will be 9ft wide by 10ft and be smaller than the other bedroom. The doors etc. will make it hard to fit a bed well in that room to work as a master (ie where 2 adults can sleep comfortable). I know you won't use it as that, but someone in the future will want to.

However with a bath in the 3rd bedroom you can have 2 adults and 2 kids sharing that bath and have good space for all to sleep as well. The kids could share the larger room and the parents could use the 9x12 and no one has to go downstairs to use the bathroom.

When you split the master only the occupants of that room will have access to the bath. You will be able to fit the parents in the 9x12 room and one kid in the old master and one in bedroom 3, but only one kid has access to the bath and others would need to walk through that room to access it. In addition the pipes have to be run further and more have to be torn up to add the pipes/access.

I would suggest talking to another realtor as well as to their opinion as I think the one you talked to might not be able to see what the actually space would be like. Some people are spatially challenged.

Another option is to split bedroom 3 and use the back part for a bathroom and then open up the other part into the hallway for a window into the hallway and a bench seat or something such as a desk could be added there.

Hi Lyfia, thanks for your suggestion. Not sure if you’ve read the update but we’re adding a bathroom not an en-suite upstairs so the bathroom will be accessible to all. We taken the advice from two local estate agents to plan the house this way. Changing the house to a 2 bed significantly reduces the value of the property.

“Spatially challenged” ha ha! That made me laugh.

You won't have enough space in your bathroom to put anything - that's basically a hallway to either a shower, toilet or sink, but you can't have a normal 3/4 bath in that space. I suppose you could do a total wet room where you walk through the shower to get to the toilet, but I don't see how that's adding value. You'll have to get plumbing all the way over there, which isn't cheap (ripping out ceiling, finding places for pipes, etc.). The only space that makes sense to put this is in place of BR 3 or above the current bath, where you currently have plumbing below it already. I really don't think this is worth it, especially if you're only living there for 4 more years. How much did your realtors tell you this would increase your property value? If you can't get the cost back in value (also with smaller bedrooms and the loss of a closet), I wouldn't do it. Not sure how old your LO is, but ours hasn't gone to the bathroom in the MOTN since she potty trained. If you think this will be an issue, just have her come get you when she needs to use it.

Thanks @anj_p all noted!

Put a TARDIS in that closet - problem solved! I would suggest not asking realtors questions that are better answered by an architect or contractor.

OK that makes it better, but you need to make it wider so it can actually be used as a full bathroom too. Ie right now you don't have enough space to put anything but a toilet and a tiny wall mount sink at the end of that hallway and maybe that is fine and you can use the tub downstairs. If you want a shower in that location you will need to figure out how to change the windows as the wall for the bath will need to move into the window space and also what it will do to your exterior. The renovation is getting more expensive.

BTW I assumed you are in UK or Europe which allows for narrower clearances in the code for a bath. If it is in the US you will need to make it wider and it will encroach on the window to just have a sink and toilet.

I live in the US and our family of seven moved to a house with the only bathroom on the first floor, but my parents bedroom was next to it. There were two good sized bedrooms upstairs and one very very small bedroom, (that had a small closet at the end). My dad put a half bath in the closet and I don't remember using it much since I was in my teens with a strong bladder HAHA. I would definitely notice now and would have hated going downstairs a couple times a night to use the toilet.

I do remember taking a bath downstairs and using that bathroom to get ready to go out. No shower either!

I wonder if you could fit a half bath in between the medium bedroom and the large bedroom. The interior of the bath would be 6 feet by 42 inches with a very small sink on the wall. It might be a tight fit.

Karenseb has a good idea.

You are wasting a lot of space by trying to put the bath in the front of the house. That long wall will waste space and not accomplish the goal of a fully usable bath.

I suggest exploring moving the door into Bedroom 1 farther down the wall so that it is directly across from the door into Bedroom 2. Make the bath fatter encroaching further into Bedroom 1 to accommodate a shower unit. Move the toilet to the Bedroom 2 wall. You don't want to look at a toilet as your enter the bedrooms. It would be much nicer to not see it, if possible. Keep the closet over the stairs in Bedroom one. By doing this you accomplish four things, you keep three bedrooms, you stack the bathroom above the downstairs bath which is a much less expensive plumbing task, you create a good bed wall along the warmer, quieter interior staircase for a larger bed and you retain a closet in Bedroom 1. You might even have enough room to carve out another small linen closet in the new hall.

Of course, we a looking at this remotely. Your estate agent is standing in the rooms and that gives them an advantage in discussing options. I advised you to ask about the loss of the bedroom and you did ask. The answer was to try to keep the third bedroom. Okay.

Here is more advice. Before you settle on the final arrangement, talk to your builder and make really good friends with the plumber. The big money in this project is going to be the plumbing. It will pay to ask the plumber to suggest the smartest way to go about this design and placement of the plumbing fixtures.