Disaster Bathroom…Help Needed!
OK, so it’s not that bad. It’s “Blah”. I could easily make it “Look” awesome enough. The problem is that the tub placement is upsetting my living room plan and I JUST CAN’T GET PASSED IT!
That tub…right…there!
It just needs to be 8″ closer to the toilet! There’s room. I realize that would just make this already small bathroom even smaller but what is that weird extra space on the right of the toilet doing for anyone? Really? (It does make a nice place for the new “Flip Top” trash can that Brody can’t get into! (But I’d just put a trash can under the sink if I need to.)
So I’m considering moving the tub over or getting rid of it altogether and just having this be a pretty powder room. The bedroom that this bath “services” will never, not once, be used for Showering as long as we live here.
My question is:
What would you want if you were to walk into my house, if it were on the market?
Would you want two small bedrooms, each with their own bathroom?
Or, would you be OK with an office and one small bedroom with it’s own bath and then another bedroom with a bathroom upstairs (in addition to the master “wing” with bedroom, closet and bathroom AND the guest bedroom and bathroom downstairs)? So, it would still be 4 and 1/2 bathrooms in the house. (I’d just make the half bath upstairs a full bath and the full bath HERE a powder room.)
So, that’s three questions. Help me decide because I’m at an impasse here. I HATE this bathroom and would love to get rid of the tub altogether but I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot when it comes time to sell.
What would you do with this baby?
EDIT: I had to scratch this floorplan out for all those asking for clarification. Sorry it’s so hard to read…I was in a hurry!
Nothing is to scale but you can see where everything is on the main floor. The basement has a GIANT Guest bedroom and bathroom so our guests would NEVER use this TINY spare bedroom. There is a 1600 sq/ft open room upstairs that currently has a half bath. I want to make that a full bath with walk in shower and put in bunk beds so that upstairs would technically be a “bedroom”.
The only way I can see anyone actually wanting to use both of these small rooms as bedrooms is if they had two small children and then they wouldn’t really care if they had to use the en suite bathroom in the one bedroom. Right? Anyone with teenage kids would probably have the teens upstairs in the “Groovy Teen Hangout” room (that isn’t groovy yet but all in due time…)
Easy! Powder room and delete one door. Oh, I wish I had this problem!
I’m leaning…
What are you using the small living room for? Honestly, I would open up the walls to the formal living room and make a bigger bathroom and a larger bedroom/office. Not sure how big your family room is, but when we designed our house, we chose NOT to have a formal living room. It has worked out well. Also, to resell the house, the larger bedroom/bathroom setting could be used for a handicap-accessible setting. Our master bedroom is on the second floor, but when I had my knee replacement, I was grateful to be able to be on the first floor with a full bath and room, etc. That just my 2 cents. Love your abilities!
I don’t like that everything on this side of the house is so small. 🙁 But, I don’t want to lose the openness that living room created after I tore the wall out. If it were a closed wall in the main hallway, it would feel small and closed in the main part of the house as apposed to that back bedroom. I’d rather have the space in the main area. I would opt out of the formal LR if our living room were larger though. Good idea.
This might seem like a strange idea but why can’t you delete that room all together. If you changed the room and created a media room/office/studio type room then there is no need to have a bathroom at all. If you want to leave something then a toilet will suffice. If you continue with your plan to create rooms upstairs then the number of bedrooms will increase and you can change this room’s (that is causing so many problems) purpose. If you remove the closet and create a media centre then use blockout curtains you would have a great cinema room.
I do not think that removing the bath would change the value of the house. I think that the house is large enough to accommodate this change and that in the end you will be happier with the house and you are the one who has to live in it.
Good luck with whatever you decide, I look forward to seeing how you deal with this problem.
Well I want at least a powder room so guests have somewhere to “do what they need to do” so I don’t want to get rid of it completely.
Jumping in with my thoughts:
You might want to run this by a local realtor who “specializes” in your area of town. It’s good to know what the buyers are looking for, and seeing in your ‘hood.
Have you thought of making it a wheel chair- accessible shower area? install a wider door, remove the tub insert, and you’ll gain a few inches on the walls. Move that ill-placed wall to its rightful spot. Tile the walls, and make a shower without a “curb.” I’ve seen it in a guest room a friend put in her home (on the main floor) and it is lovely. Even if you never have a wheel chair-bound guest, you may have family members who have knee, ankle, or foot issues… (my hubs had major knee surgery at 50).
Talking to a Realtor is a really good idea Cheri. Thanks.
Having lived in a very large house as a kid, and having a summer home as well, my vote is this: go powder room! You can make it a much nicer powder room than it would otherwise be, a powder room has a different feel to it for guests…. nicer and more “just for them”. I don’t think that other 2 bedroom with one having it’s own bath is a big deal. Easy enough to work around, and turning the one into an office is a great solution. Every house needs an office!
You know you want to get rid of that tub. Just do it.
I agree. A powder room would be much nicer…