second bathroom or seperate shower??

16 years ago

I have a two bedroom one and one 1/2 bath townhouse. The half bath is actually in the basement, so it rarely gets used. The bath on the second level is approximately 7X5 and has a tub/shower combination. One door leads into the hallway and the other door passes through our closet and then the master bedroom. The closet is approximately 4X7.

Should I create a small full bathroom for the 'master bedroom' or use this space to build a walk in shower and then replace the tub/shower combination with a deep soaking tub and separate shower?

My husband and I plan on staying in this house for ten years or less, so we want to make a decision that would appeal to the next owners.

Any suggestion would be helpful at this point.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

scottmel
16 years ago
DEFINATELY go for the extra bath to make it a master suite. This would be SO nice for resale - many people love a master suite and if your unit is a rare one having it - that would definately set you apart....Since if I understand your note - there is only one commode on this floor - after this remodel there would be 2...
johnmari
16 years ago
Ditto on the extra bath to make a master suite. It will give your townhouse an excellent amenity that (probably most of) the others don't have, and it is SO nice to have too! Just make sure that there's a nice tub somewhere in the unit - doesn't have to be a huge 6' soaking tub with jets and it can be a tub/shower combo, but an adult human should be able to take a reasonably decent bath.

All other things being equal, 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhouse should sell quite a bit faster than a 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, and garner a higher price. Just don't go overboard on the budget, and if you want to do anything trendy do it with the easily replaced stuff like paint, light fixtures, accessories and not with the tougher stuff like tile.
Related Discussions
Wainscoting height for my bathroom (x-post with Bathrooms)
Q
Comments (5)
Well now if you stop worrying about every little freaking thing, what happens to us??? We're unemployed ;-) I'm trying to picture your layout but honestly it isn't clear to me. Generally I like to see something other than a 50/50 split but there are other things that come into play - how does that 50/50 or 33/66 relate to the finished height of your vanity counters, to the windows (if any) either at sill or apron height. I like continuity, too and like to see some relation to other horizontal lines in a space - expecially a space like a bathroom. But that doesn't mean everything has to end at the same height, just that you need to put those other lines into the thought process so you don't end up with staggered and unrelated horizontal lines all through the space. Clear as mud?
...See More
Laundry with Bathroom or seperate
Q
Comments (12)
Option #1 has a tiny bathroom which would not be suitable as senior age and need assistance in the bath. There would be no room for a caregiver to be in there at the same time and no floor space for a wheelchair or walker. Hopefully these baths have wider doors to accommodate wheelchairs if they became necessary. The bottom plan is just inconvenient at any age. Who wants to keep crossing a large bedroom to go from the toilet to the shower. And who wants to have to walk though a laundry room to get to the bathroom? No. One bedroom door goes to a full bath and laundry can be adjacent. Perhaps a second laundry room door could open into a hallway. Also a laundry room needs more than a W/D stored in a tiny space. A small closet or overhead cabinets for laundry/cleaning supplies and paper products. A counter between the machines that serves as a folding table. Storage for baskets underneath. The design needs to respect the function of the room.
...See More
Where should I add a second bathroom?
Q
Comments (4)
Reduce the existing bath by building a wall from the right tub wall through the middle of the current sinks. Then have the master closet, then master bathroom, taking over that extra 2.5’ of space south of the stove.
...See More
Second guessing bathroom floor tile & layout - keep or redo? (see pic)
Q
Comments (2)
can't even see the floor tile! post a better pic. but from the little I can see, it seems to be fine, color-wise. yes, it's a bit more modern, but so is the style of your bathroom. warm things up w/some wood shelving, some art, towels, maybe a throw rug, some greenery but no, I would not do the same 12x24 wall tile on the floor. it's too much of the same.
...See More
cinchin
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the input. The full bathroom has a tub/shower combination, so we would still have a tub in the house. It would be nice to have a second full bath with a shower. My only concern would be the extra expense to add the pluming for the toilet. The shower would be back to back with the existing tub, so I don't see that being too much trouble for a plummer.
heimert
16 years ago
One thing I had in an apartment I rented that I thought made a lot of sense was this: There were two bathrooms with sink/toilet, but they shared the shower/tub in between the two of them. In other words there were basically three rooms in a row: sink/toilet : tub/shower : sink/toilet.

that may not work for you, but I thought it was a good way to have some privacy for the sink and toilet for the master, while not needing two full baths.
johnmari
16 years ago
I don't know what shape the space you have available is, but I wanted to show you the layout of a 3/4 bath in an apartment I once had just to give you an idea of how efficiently such a small space can be used. This room was 7 feet long and between 3 1/2 and 4 feet wide.

This layout made the shower remarkably spacious for a tiny apartment bathroom that was very much "shoehorned in" - it was the third floor of an 1880s three-flat/"triple-deckah" in South Boston that had never had space set aside for a bathroom until WWII!

Talk to your plumBer :-) about the feasibility of putting in the plumBing :-) for the toilet. It may well not be as difficult as one might think. Rearranging your layout to put the toilet in closest possible proximity to the soil stack may be a smart thing to do as shower drain pipes are a lot smaller than toilets' and so somewhat easier to run hither and yon. You will probably need to take out either the ceiling of the floor below or the subfloor of what will be the new bathroom to give the plumber enough access to run the plumbing around where it needs to go.

Oh, and pocket doors are a thing of beauty if you're short on space. They've come a long way from those wretched hollowcore monstrosities of the 60s and 70s - they've gone back to more like the solid pocket doors of the turn of the 20th century. Love love love them. No wasted space for the door swing!
cinchin
Original Author
16 years ago
That layout is exactly what I have now, except mine is a little larger. Our bathroom is 7 feet long and 5 feet wide, and there is a door (where you had your towel rack) which leads to our closet that is 7 feet long and 4 feet wide. Thanks for the suggestion about the pocket doors. I never thought about it, but they make tons of sense in my small space.

I don't have a problem with small bathrooms, I just don't like having to clean the tub before i take a bath. My husband only takes showers and I end up cleaning out the tub every time i want to relax in a nice hot bath... very tiresome!

I know it is almost impossible to know exactly, but does anyone have a general cost estimate for the plumbing work? To position the toilet in the closest possible proximity, It would have to be at least 5 feet from the current toilet. Am I looking at $1,000 or more like a $10,000?