Adding first floor full or half bath?

[Anonymous]

If you aren't selling for 5-10 years, I'd put your needs/wants ahead of resale vlaue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to have a full bath on the main floor and as part of a recent renovation we replaced it with a 1/2 bath. We had two upstairs though so hard to say if we would have used it if it was our second bath. In ten years we'd used the shower only once, and mainly used the shower to store stuff. We moved the full bath to the basement, where there had been only a 1/2, and now it gets used quite frequently.

As to the dining room question I guess it depends on your lifestyle. We use ours a lot so we put a priority on a big dining room. In fact cutting the full bath to a half bath on the main floor bought us some space in the DR, which was good.

There isn't anywhere upstairs to add a full bath, even a small one? Our architect was pretty creative about use of space so you may want to consult a professional on this.

We have an excellent architect - although we do not have plans at this stage, we have just discussed it in detail. There's definitely space if we reconfigure the existing layout. We don't want to do that, partly because our house was built in the 1890s and we want to keep some of the original features but also because of financial considerations and because we need to live there during this work. If we put a bathroom in the second floor addition it would significantly reduce the space for the third bedroom and would also be back to back with the existing bathroom which seems strange to me. (Unless we moved the existing bathroom which again, would just increase costs significantly.) This will be a good quality addition rather than a boxy closed in porch with ugly siding (as is common in our neighborhood), but I don't think we will be able to increase the budget and disruption necessary to put another bathroom anywhere else. Unfortunately we can't build on more than 60 percent of our lot, so we don't have the space to increase the size of the proposed addition.

When you look at house plans many bathrooms on the second floor are back to back - much easier for the plumbing. Ours are certainly back to back but one is in the MBR and one in the hall.

I would still go with the half bath on the main floor and add a second floor bath when you've got the budget for it.

We lived through a big renovation that included every room in the house (except for the hall bath upstairs, which had been done previously) and it was unpleasant but do-able.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to have a full bath on the main floor and as part of a recent renovation we replaced it with a 1/2 bath. We had two upstairs though so hard to say if we would have used it if it was our second bath. In ten years we'd used the shower only once, and mainly used the shower to store stuff. We moved the full bath to the basement, where there had been only a 1/2, and now it gets used quite frequently.

As to the dining room question I guess it depends on your lifestyle. We use ours a lot so we put a priority on a big dining room. In fact cutting the full bath to a half bath on the main floor bought us some space in the DR, which was good.

There isn't anywhere upstairs to add a full bath, even a small one? Our architect was pretty creative about use of space so you may want to consult a professional on this.

We have an excellent architect - although we do not have plans at this stage, we have just discussed it in detail. There's definitely space if we reconfigure the existing layout. We don't want to do that, partly because our house was built in the 1890s and we want to keep some of the original features but also because of financial considerations and because we need to live there during this work. If we put a bathroom in the second floor addition it would significantly reduce the space for the third bedroom and would also be back to back with the existing bathroom which seems strange to me. (Unless we moved the existing bathroom which again, would just increase costs significantly.) This will be a good quality addition rather than a boxy closed in porch with ugly siding (as is common in our neighborhood), but I don't think we will be able to increase the budget and disruption necessary to put another bathroom anywhere else. Unfortunately we can't build on more than 60 percent of our lot, so we don't have the space to increase the size of the proposed addition.

When you look at house plans many bathrooms on the second floor are back to back - much easier for the plumbing. Ours are certainly back to back but one is in the MBR and one in the hall.

I would still go with the half bath on the main floor and add a second floor bath when you've got the budget for it.

We lived through a big renovation that included every room in the house (except for the hall bath upstairs, which had been done previously) and it was unpleasant but do-able.

yes, back to back makes sense for the plumbing, however I should have clarified -- not only will they be back to back but the doors would be right next to each other. Unless one is mens and the other ladies and this a commercial establishment that seems strange! the only other option would be to take space out of the existing bedrooms, or the closets which I'm reluctant to do even if we do want to 1) deal with the disruption or 2) fork out the cash, plus there will be issues with plumbing as all the existing plumbing is at the rear of the house.

Anyway, I had previously dismissed the idea of putting a second floor bathroom into the addition, but I'll talk with my architect about it again in case he can see any other way to do it other than putting two bathrooms side by side. If it's doable without sacrificing too much space in the bedroom addition, I'd rather do that. Though would still want a half bath on the first floor, so this would increase costs significantly....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We lived through a big renovation that included every room in the house (except for the hall bath upstairs, which had been done previously) and it was unpleasant but do-able.

Me too. But not something I"m willing to do again with a toddler and a newborn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to have a full bath on the main floor and as part of a recent renovation we replaced it with a 1/2 bath. We had two upstairs though so hard to say if we would have used it if it was our second bath. In ten years we'd used the shower only once, and mainly used the shower to store stuff. We moved the full bath to the basement, where there had been only a 1/2, and now it gets used quite frequently.

As to the dining room question I guess it depends on your lifestyle. We use ours a lot so we put a priority on a big dining room. In fact cutting the full bath to a half bath on the main floor bought us some space in the DR, which was good.

There isn't anywhere upstairs to add a full bath, even a small one? Our architect was pretty creative about use of space so you may want to consult a professional on this.

We have an excellent architect - although we do not have plans at this stage, we have just discussed it in detail. There's definitely space if we reconfigure the existing layout. We don't want to do that, partly because our house was built in the 1890s and we want to keep some of the original features but also because of financial considerations and because we need to live there during this work. If we put a bathroom in the second floor addition it would significantly reduce the space for the third bedroom and would also be back to back with the existing bathroom which seems strange to me. (Unless we moved the existing bathroom which again, would just increase costs significantly.) This will be a good quality addition rather than a boxy closed in porch with ugly siding (as is common in our neighborhood), but I don't think we will be able to increase the budget and disruption necessary to put another bathroom anywhere else. Unfortunately we can't build on more than 60 percent of our lot, so we don't have the space to increase the size of the proposed addition.

Better off with making 2 small full baths upstairs and one opening to a master [1 sink,toilet, shower-other bath 1 sink, toilet, tub]. They can be back to back. 2 small bedrooms are fine. Put a small 1/2 bath on the first floor.

This bath might be 6'x8'. Do a really small vanity and it could be less than 8 in length. A good idea for small bedrooms is to build in closets on either side of windows and a window seat in the middle. Make that tub a shower and the room could be 4' x 6'.

[Anonymous]

forgot link to pic
http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/decorating-small-bathrooms.html

[Anonymous]

I think it's always better to have two full baths than one, and if that's the only place to put it then so be it. If you have houseguests, it's a lot easier for them to walk down one floor to shower than to walk down to the unfinished basement. If the basement were finished, however, I think a full bath would make more sense down there and just a half bath on the main level.

[Anonymous]

Any chance you could make it a combo full bath/laundry room? That would be a handy thing to have off the kitchen...