Plans for reconfiguring the middle floor of our house: Part One

Sometimes plans take so long to come to fruition that from that they change quite substantially from the initial concept. Sometimes they go around in circles and come back to the original idea (always quite comforting as this usually means you made the right decision in the first place and have confirmed it), and sometimes they change so many times that you can barely remember what your original plan was.

The middle floor of our house consists of the master bedroom, ‘family’ bathroom (it’s small - less that 4 square metres), the room of doom that was Baxter’s bedroom before he moved up to the loft), the TV / guest room, that was Edie’s room before she also moved up to the loft, and our bedroom.

Money (lack thereof) has meant that the bathroom that was pretty tired when we moved in (twelve years ago next month) has remained the same aside from the odd budget tweak over the years, most recently a stick on vinyl floor because I couldn’t stand the state of the floor any longer. I had chosen glittery grey vinyl tiles about a decade ago and they were an insipid grey that I never really even liked. Don’t get me started on the glitter.

Then a few years back when the house was being photographed I bought a cheap piece of black vinyl and laid it directly onto the glitter tiles. No glue, I just literally popped it down on top. That ‘temporary’ fix, stayed put until one day a few months ago I decided to rip it all up, with the intention of laying my left over Amtico from the living and dining room. Then I got worried about sticking that down when really the bathroom still needed to be ripped out completely, so settled for yet another temporary measure - some super cheap black sticky-backed wood look vinyl and actually the floor looks better than it has in years! That said, the toilet has an actual hole in it currently filled with epoxy modelling putty - another ‘temporary’ measure from maybe a year ago when my husband knocked a glass bottle into it (Bottle: 1, Toilet: 0), the basin trap occasionally leaks and the shower head is so neglected that if you gave it a dirty look it would quite possibly crumble into a thousand pieces.

The tiles are floor to ceiling (a cold nasty white) and and the grout is stained (especially in the shower area) and the also cracked badly in several areas. The window has seen better days, and although I painted it not that long ago, I know it’s probably in dire need of reconditioning (or replacing). There is no proper ventilation and I never did get around to grouting the mirrored mosaics on the bath panel. And no, I’m not showing you just yet, exactly how bad it is. But I will be forced to just before it gets ripped out!

Next door to the bathroom is currently the Room of Doom - a dumping ground for unused and unwanted furniture and accessories, paint cans and various other things that have no where else to go (the fold up spare mattress for kids sleepovers, a dead plant and a ladder - you get the picture, it has become an unorganised indoor shed.

Then on the other side of the bathroom, down one step and up another five, is what we are currently using as a TV room / guest room. This used to be Edie’s bedroom and is next door to our bedroom. It’s a beautiful room with high ceiling and a huge sash window (albeit probably rotten), and next to that is our bedroom.

Last year, this was my plan…

Existing bathroom: Remodel and keep as main bathroom, but just with a shower and getting rid of the bath.

Room of Doom: Remains and becomes the TV / guest room (AGAIN).

TV / guest room: Close off the existing door and open up a door into our bedroom, use some of the space as small walk through wardrobe, and create an ensuite of dreams, with a free-standing bath.

However, although this plan excited me hugely, I had a niggling doubt in the back of my mind about sacrificing the second largest bedroom in the house for the sake of an ensuite - even the ensuite of dreams. I wasn’t worried about going from five bedrooms to four, just that the size of the spare room would only be a very tight double.

Then I started thinking about moving. I definitely get itchy feet every now and then, and I’ve never lived anywhere this long in my entire life. I moved a lot as a kid and have written about my Decorating DNA and in-built need for change here if you fancy a read.

In a nutshell, although I love our house, I couldn’t stop thinking about a change. A big change. The idea was that if we sold our kind of finished house, and bought a doer-upper drastically reducing our mortgage - a huge bonus obviously, that we could stay in the close vicinity as we hope that Baxter will go to the local secondary school when it comes time. But doer-uppers get pounced on very quickly around here, and if you’re not in the position to make an offer immediately, someone will beat you to it. But as our search area was tiny, it was a chicken or the egg situation, I only wanted to sell for exactly the right house in exactly the right position. Ultimately we have decided to stay put, but that pause gave me LOTS of time to think. The seed of doubt grew about the room sacrifice and I came up with plan B…

Existing bathroom: Becomes a utility room.

Room of Doom: Becomes the bathroom.

TV / Guest room: Stays the same.

On paper this is a good sensible plan. The Room of Doom is a larger room so we could fit in a free-standing bath, but something was still bothering me… The ceilings in the back part of the house - an extension at some point, are really low, and although I could still design a beautiful bathroom in the back room, it’s a quite a dark room and the low ceiling means it will never have the luxurious feeling the ensuite would have had. But you know, I could get over that if that was the only issue, but having the guest room right next to our bedroom, isn’t ideal either - ideally, the guest room would be at the back of the house which feels a bit more private and separate.

Then over Christmas plan C popped into my head!

What if we made that luxurious bathroom next to our bedroom, but it was a the main bathroom, not an ensuite, so we kept the door where it currently is? That would absolutely work, right?

Then the existing bathroom becomes a utility, but we steal some space from the already small room, to make the Room of Doom into a larger TV / Guest room with some built in storage.

Perfect! Or is it…

We would no doubt be woken by guests using the bathroom in the night, and it’s a bit of a distance for my father-in-law (our regular guest!) to go from the back bedroom, down one step and up five steps to the bathroom in the night too.

Wait, a minute…. what if we kept a loo in the dinky utility room?

BINGO, all problems solved!

Yes, that is how my mind works - I may get carried away and over-excited, but my logical side does come out at some point and I do get to the best plan eventually, and I believe this is the best plan all around. The guest room will be larger, so I’m not concerned about turning the second largest bedroom into a bathroom, and the position of everything works perfectly, and with the new bathroom being right next to our bedroom it will basically feel like we have an ensuite anyway (the kids have a bathroom upstairs). Besides, we don’t mind sharing.

So that, ladies (and the odd gentleman), is the plan!

I don’t know if I’m more excited about the Bathroom or the Utility but I’m definitely VERY excited about both. I never thought we’d have separate utility space in this house, and the fact that we can relocate the washing machine from the kitchen (freeing up a cupboard in there), and bring the dryer up from the cellar will for starters make life so much easier. Honestly, it’s going to be so tiny that we won’t have space for much else as we’re leaving a loo in there too, but it can still be a lovely small space.

I’d like to hide the washing machine and dryer in kitchen units, or at least under a work surface, incorporating a new sink and tap, a ceiling mounted clothes airer and some open shelving to house my vases and platters (taking up a bit more kitchen slack!).

I’m currently working on the bathroom floor plan and looking at a billion utility rooms on Pinterest.

I think this one will come together as I go along to a large extent and we’ll see what’s possible with such a teeny space.

But the bathroom will actually happen first, so we can continue to use the existing bathroom as the new one is going in. I can’t believe this is actually going to happen this year - finally!

Watch this space as I will be sharing the plans for the bathroom really soon!

Questions? Concerns? Leave a comment below!