To en suite or not to en suite?

[patp]

56 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Can you design the house so that the ES is, initially, separate from the bedroom. But in the future a new doorway can could be fitted to connect the two.

Or do what I do, work before bedtime, then I am a little dehydrated for the night, and tired. I sleep quite well because of this.

Mornings I get up early, tea and fags for an hour or two, then shower/bath. No one is disturbed.

Living alone is the real answer.

This was the way we were heading before I decided to pose the question on here

Dehydration can actually cause insomnia so I am not trying that one

 

[SteamyTea]

13 minutes ago, patp said:

Dehydration can actually cause insomnia so I am not trying that one

Not talking alcohol induced, more running around a 40°C commercial kitchen for 6 hours.

Trust me, you sleep after that.

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, JSHarris said:

I've found that our built-in cisterns are surprisingly quiet, so quiet that when you're in the bathroom it's hard to hear when the thing has stopped filling (slight nuisance when cleaning the thing as you have to listen carefully to hear when it's ready to flush again).  I've no idea of the make; they came with the Vitra WCs as a kit.  TBH I had half a mind to change them for something else, as, although the WCs and basins were really quite good, I wasn't 100% convinced that Turkish-made cisterns etc would be that well made.  It was a pleasant surprise to find that they were so quiet and we've had no problems with any of them so far.

Our issue I am sure is our very high mains water pressure so running any cold tap or the cistern filling is noisy.

 

At the new house every cold tap apart from the kitchen comes from the pressure reduced feed and everything is very much quieter in operation.

[Adam2]

14 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

The MVHR boost fan noise is only barely perceptible and goes off after 10 mins anyway.

 

Didn't I read that the German building regs insist on a corridor (i.e. two doors) between any habitable space and a toilet? We seem to have achieved that by accident rather than intent.

Very similar design to ours. Can I ask - how solid to the walls/pocket doors feel? Have seen some that are not so good.

[joth]

20 hours ago, Ed Davies said:

 

Didn't UK regulations use to require that? Or was it just between toilets and kitchens?

UK regs still do for commercial premises, I believe. Between toilets and food preparation or consumption areas. A handy side effect is as well as helping keep the smells away it can help avoid unpleasant sight lines. 

[Hecateh]

Another one for a motion  movement sensor night light.  I had one built in but my ensuite and dressing room are all one room with a dividing wall down about 2/3rds of it.  My wonderful electrician put the sensor so it goes on as I go through the dressing area and if i'm longer than 2 minutes in the loo(which is rare but has been know) the light goes off so I have a back up battery one.  I wouldn't have bothered with the built in if I had known, a few of the battery ones which are not expensive, would have been plenty.  The batteries last about 6 months so no big deal there.

[Bitpipe]

17 hours ago, Adam2 said:

Very similar design to ours. Can I ask - how solid to the walls/pocket doors feel? Have seen some that are not so good.

 

We went for fairly cheap ones, Haeffle  - Eclisse didn't have any available that fitted our wall width (CLS) and the Haeffle ones were less than half the cost.

 

There is really just a head rail that the door hangs off, a single support for the wall side and some guide runners for the door where it meets the ground. Did not bother with brushes. We ordered 45mm solid doors.

 

We used blue plasterboard (soundblock) on exterior and green (moisture) on interior, plus tiles in bathroom. Walls are very solid - slight rattle from the doors occasionally but very happy with the overall performance.

[patp]

We are still struggling with the title of this thread.

 

I decided to go for the idea of a dressing room as a buffer between the en suite and the bedroom. There have been lots of plans flying back and forth and we are not there yet.

 

Because the shower now has to be against an outside wall, to accommodate the dressing room, there is a problem with the window in the en suite. On one plan he removed it and put in a velux roof light. Now he has put it back but it is wooden and I do not want a shower next to a wooden window.

I am close to giving up and not having an ensuite at all which was my first thought. So many people have shown surprise at the omission of an en suite that I got into discussion with the AT again.

 

My thoughts are that removing the window means we have to have a velux window on an otherwise pristine roof (though we are not having thoughts of solar panels so that might change my perception). Should I go for the practicalities of the best configuration of the ensuite and dressing room to make sleeping better or for the aesthetic value of the window in the right place (to me ) and no velux window?

 

I have tried to copy plans but am struggling with a new laptop that does not do a "right click" to copy and paste !

[Onoff]

Has your laptop not got Snipping Tool built in under Windows Accessories?

[patp]

Have no idea if it has a snipping tool or not  I should, however be able to right click on things I want to copy. It is one of those sliding pads where I am used to have two distinct buttons. It all works fine except when I try to right click for any reason when it just does nothing. I have a techy friend who might come look at the weekend to see if it is me or not. I am finding my around all the other little changes such as rolling the screen around etc but just cannot get anything to happen when I right click.

[patp]

If anyone is desperately interested in seeing the plans I can forward them as an attachment in an email

[SteamyTea]

Assuming you have a Windows PC, then look at the touchpad settings.

 

[patp]

file:///C:/Users/patpr/Downloads/3607%20BR01E%20-%20PLAN%20&%20ELEVATIONS%20(1).pdf

 

Thank you @SteamyTea I just tried right clicking in the bottom right corner, as shown on your link, and it has worked! I would have trouble even going in and finding "settings" to be honest  Let's hope the link works now!

 

[patp]

This way may work?

3607 BR01E - PLAN & ELEVATIONS (1).pdf

[ykhan16]

I'm really liking some of the plans on this thread especially Re. dressing rooms/ensuite layouts *steals ideas*.

 

Personally I wouldnt be too bothered by what people say/think- if you probably dont think you need an ensuite then maybe you shouldnt try to squeeze one in. (I would actually like my new home to have an ensuite mainly because with 2 kids theres a lot of bathroom traffice and me and my wife need to wake at practically the same time to get ready for work- atm I have to wake up 15mins earlier just to free up the bathroom! )

Have you considered modifying your first idea about the single bathroom (between master and bedroom 2) but with two doors- one to the main bedroom and one to the hallway? You can get a simultaneous locking system fitted to both.

 

[joe90]

Personally I love our en suite and would Defo want one if we still had kids about! The dressing room between en suite and bedroom is also good as you don’t have to be “decent” walking from one to another.

[newhome]

38 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Personally I love our en suite. 

 

The dressing room between en suite and bedroom is also good as you don’t have to be “decent” walking from one to another.

 

+1 and when I buy my next house an en suite and dressing room is on the list of essentials. 

[mjward]

Interesting to read this thread as we are the opposite. Had an ensuite for 10 years and massively preferred using the larger family bathroom. 

 

In fact I'm currently in early doodle mode of our own self build and will incorporate 2 full size family bathrooms to cater for 3 primary/inhabited bedrooms plus 2 guest rooms

 

 

[the_r_sole]

2 hours ago, mjward said:

Interesting to read this thread as we are the opposite. Had an ensuite for 10 years and massively preferred using the larger family bathroom. 

 

In fact I'm currently in early doodle mode of our own self build and will incorporate 2 full size family bathrooms to cater for 3 primary/inhabited bedrooms plus 2 guest rooms

 

 

 

That's a strange layout imho - why have two HUGE bathrooms so close to one another and both accessed from the hall and the bathrooms look like they're bigger than two of the bedrooms?! 

This is a very north american looking floor plan, where are you building?

[AliG]

Hi @mjward

 

Part of the reason to build your own house is to have things as you would like them, so if that is really what you want to do go ahead.

 

As for my input, I wouldn't even consider buying a house without an en suite. At the size of house you seem to be building, 300sq metres, people would consider it very strange indeed. This size of house normally has two en suite plus a family bathroom. So if you plan to sell at any point I think it is a bad idea.

 

As to the very large bathrooms with a lot of floor space. I do like a generous bathroom, but I have been in a couple of houses with similar bathroom layouts to what you suggest. A large square room with bathroom equipment dotted about actually feels quite odd. You need to design interest into the rooms.

[mjward]

1 hour ago, the_r_sole said:

 

That's a strange layout imho - why have two HUGE bathrooms so close to one another and both accessed from the hall and the bathrooms look like they're bigger than two of the bedrooms?! 

This is a very north american looking floor plan, where are you building?

It's for a build in England. I've just learnt from experience. In a family home it's rare that just one person wants the family bathroom for that 30 mins window. People don't bath in the middle of the day or at 10pm. Bathroom (not WC) use occurs in a very narrow window of time and thus it makes incredible logical sense for a house of that size to accommodate more than one utilisation. Compared to an ensuite which can only be used by the inhabitants of that particular bedroom.

[mjward]

1 hour ago, AliG said:

Hi @mjward

 

Part of the reason to build your own house is to have things as you would like them, so if that is really what you want to do go ahead.

 

As for my input, I wouldn't even consider buying a house without an en suite. At the size of house you seem to be building, 300sq metres, people would consider it very strange indeed. This size of house normally has two en suite plus a family bathroom. So if you plan to sell at any point I think it is a bad idea.

 

As to the very large bathrooms with a lot of floor space. I do like a generous bathroom, but I have been in a couple of houses with similar bathroom layouts to what you suggest. A large square room with bathroom equipment dotted about actually feels quite odd. You need to design interest into the rooms.

The design intersect is something I need to work on for sure. The main purpose of the house design is a forever house (don't we all) but should selling be favourable that's a secondary consideration. 

 

We own two and have lived in three properties over the past decade and both my wife and I always found ourselves defaulting to the family bathroom (Vs ensuite) to relax. As per the floor plans, both of these are within a short walk of any bedroom so it's convenient but perhaps I need to address the size issue. My driving thought was that a smaller bedroom equates to "cosy" whereas a small bathroom becomes "cramped". A trade off that needs some further tinkering I believe.

[AliG]

I agree on keeping a bedroom cosy, I think the way to think about them is the sleeping area, storage/wardrobes, relaxing space and then an en suite. Each of these requires some floorspace. So the sleeping area with the bed in it probably only needs to be around 3.3x3.3-4x4m, more than this and the space starts to be wasted. Then if you want storage that is extra space, then if you want a sitting area that is more space again and then you have an en suite. My daughter's and main guest bedroom are very large as we planned to have sitting areas in them for example, without that they would just be a bed sitting in a pointlessly large space.

 

I suspect that if you default to the family bathroom versus the en suite to relax at the moment, it is because it is a nicer room. My wife loves to spend hours in the bath and getting our ensuite right was very important to her. No change was made to the house design after we started to build, except our ensuite which we redesigned three times. The bath is in an alcove with a TV in the wall, not only does she love it, but our daughter prefers it to her en suite and likes to use the bath so she can watch the TV.

[the_r_sole]

7 minutes ago, mjward said:

It's for a build in England. I've just learnt from experience. In a family home it's rare that just one person wants the family bathroom for that 30 mins window. People don't bath in the middle of the day or at 10pm. Bathroom (not WC) use occurs in a very narrow window of time and thus it makes incredible logical sense for a house of that size to accommodate more than one utilisation. Compared to an ensuite which can only be used by the inhabitants of that particular bedroom.

 

It's your house at the end of the day but I'd say two bathrooms bigger than two bedrooms is unusual - I get that you prefer the family bathroom, but does everyone who might use the house? (If I was a guest in there I'd be worried about which bathroom I was meant to using!)

 If it was my "forever house" I'd have zero qualms about having a huge ensuite - I'd actually have a bath in it's own space too as I like a bath... but in all my time I've never had a client ask forh two family bathrooms within a few meters of each other on the same floor and no ensuites (I usually spend my time discouraging people from having en suites in every bedroom!)

[joe90]

Well I have an en suite but it’s bigger than the “family bathroom”. Our en suite has a large shower, toilet, basin and a large bath. The family bathroom has only toilet, basin and shower. Downstairs cloakroom also has toilet and basin.