Fourth bedroom or second bathroom? Which is better?

[wylie]

In the 14 or so years we have had this house, we have had a mixture of families and singles. The demographic is tricky in Coorparoo, with neither singles nor families being the likely target.

I do know that lack of a bath has lost us tenants, so if we do this, I think we will try to put in a bath. If that means a shower over bath, at least there is a bath and a separate shower.

I'm not sure what you mean by wasted space in the middle. As soon as you step through the front door, that large middle space is a large open lounge/dining room with large double french doors out to a huge deck with suburb views.

 

[Melbournian]

Trying to attach the photo of the plan so it can be enlarged...

not sure if your passageway is that big - but i would put the study as WIR or extend the bedroom 3 into the study and take a bit of bedroom 4 space into it to have a table etc and sliding robes or something.

The remaining space in bedroom 4 would be an ensuite as it is next to the bathroom and would be less costly to implement a bathroom. but where's the living room dining area?

 

[wylie]

LOL. That "big hallway" IS the living/dining. See my last paragraph in post 21 .

This is half way into that long living/dining, look towards the street. The main front door was put in by us a few years ago when we turned the veranda into Bed 3. So now you walk in, and either walk straight into the lounge/dining or turn right into Bed 3.



This is half way into the same living/dining, looking towards the back deck. You can see into the kitchen. The other thing we have discussed is removing the VJ wall between the kitchen and the lounge/dining. We could leave the wall to waist height so we don't have to patch the floor but it would feel so much more open.



The bathroom opens off the dining area opposite the kitchen door. It has fretwork above the door and I cannot imagine using the toilet whilst entertaining somebody five feet away at a dining table.

If we turn Bed 4 into a second bath/ensuite it gives so much more privacy.

 

[wylie]

This is a house we sold last year, exactly the same floor plan. These two rooms are the same as the ones in the house we are discussing but the wall has been removed between Bed 4 and the Study.

The floor of Bed 4 is different to the open boards of the study as the study in both houses was originally part of an open L-shape verandah.

You can see from this photo how tiny the room is. We could knock out the wall and make Bed 4 and the study one large ensuite with storage or keep the wall between them.



In the house we are discussing the wall is still there between the different floor levels (one slightly lower).

There are french doors from the living room into the study and a door from the study into Bed 4 and another door from the study into Bed 3. Queenslanders have LOTS of doors, but we can close some up if we get the flow right.

 

[Melbournian]

Depending on how u plan ur ensuite in bed4 u might have to raise floors. Might be worthwhile to investigate costs.

 

[wylie]

We signed a new six month lease yesterday and took a tape measure.

Measurements are -

Existing bathroom - 2100 x 2100
Bed 4 - 2100 x 2900
Office - 2100 x 2900

King size bed dimensions are 1830 x 2030 so you see these rooms are tiny which is why the agent doesn't call Bed 4 a bedroom, but a study.

If the existing bathroom had no issues we would leave it. However, the wall behind the shower has had water damage and has some spongy boards and the toilet is very ugly. The vanity is a cheapie but looks good, but will fall apart quickly (already doors have fallen off and been fixed).

Existing bathroom isn't big enough to fit a bath AND a toilet comfortably, so we would leave the layout as is - shower, loo and vanity and install a bath in the new ensuite with a shower over it, new loo, better quality vanity basin.

If we cut a door from one bathroom to the other it gives more flexibility for guests not to have to use the loo so close to the living area, but it takes away some badly needed wall space for basin.

If we could keep the french doors from the living area to the office (now WIR), then visitors can slip through to the ensuite without going through a bedroom. This needs more thought.

I'm going to draw up some plans and see what we think.

I'll post drawings when I have a bit more time.