OT: opinions on bathrooms for families home buying

shelly3girls

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
We will eventually remodel our hall bathroom in our house. We do not plan to sell for many years but we figure by the time this remodel is complete (probably five years from now) it will still be in decent shape when we sell in (10-15 years). We plan to do a high end remodel including custom cabinets and granite so we want to make sure we do it right. So here is the question...

It is a smaller bath. With a standard 5' tub we will have a small double sink vanity (48"). If we put in a shower instead (tile with seamless glass enclosure) we can put in a larger 60" double vanity. We love the idea of this b/c the deluxe shower will look more elegant and used as much. Plus the two kids using the bathroom will have more sink space. As a family looking to buy our house would the lack of tub in the hall bath deter you from buying the house? We have a large tub in our masterbath and another shower in DDs bathroom. The house is a large 5 BR 3.5Bath so definitely a family house.
 
yes it would.

reason being is that i don't want the kids trooping into my master bathroom for the tub (they already try to since it's a jetted deeper tub). dd is much more of a tub person so she would end up in my bathroom.

as for the counter space-for me, more counter space means more junk they can clutter it up with. i like sufficient space but i have the kids stow their stuff in the drawers or underneath each of the sinks (i put a lidless plastic bin under each so they have their own space for their individual items). the other thing is (not knowing how old your kids are)-how often are they apt to be in that space together at the same time? dh and i use the double sinks all the time together but the kids would'nt be caught dead in the bathroom at the same time as their sibs. so while they like having their own designated sinks, a larger counter would'nt make much of a difference.

i'll pass on one thing that the builder of our home did that i think was a great idea. he put one of those large multi door medicine cabinets in place of a large mirror over the sinks, and inside there is an outlet. it is great for putting any kind of rechargable item away. electric razors, toothbrushes...all can be stowed in the cabinet, plugged in and ready for use.
 
Keep the tub. You really need to have at least one tub available in the kid's bathroom.
 
I agree on keeping a tub in at least one non-master bathroom. With little ones needing frequent baths, it almost seems a necessity. Especially if people want a babysitter or even grandparents to give the bath...I personally don't like people going through our master bedroom or having pressure to keep the master bath clean!
I also agree that one sink is enough, so I'd probably switch to a single sink and gain extra space for storage.
 
If you take out a tub though isn't it counted as a half bath instead of a full when you list your house (just heard that on one of those reno shows)?:confused:
 
I'm with everyone else. You definitely need a tub in a bathroom other than the master. When my kids were too small for showers, they would have had to use our tub if their bathroom didn't have one. Then the master bathroom would have turned into a kiddie room with bath seats, toys, kids shampoos and all the other things they need. Our bathroom is one of the few places we can go that only has our things in it. I would definitely favor a bathtub over a larger vanity, especially in a hall bathroom.
 
Thank you for all of the replies! I will definitely show DH who is in favor of the shower. I think it makes total sense to keep the bath. I want two sinks b/c I think DD needs her own "space" as she is 7 years older than DS. I will probably do two 24" bases cabinets side by side. This eliminates the posibility of drawers but I like the suggestion of bins underneath. My kids only take showers so a shower would not be an issue for us but I want to think about resale b/c you just never know.

I am not sure about the 1/2 bath if no tub. Around here many master baths only have showers. Would that mean they don't count as a full bathroom?
 


I totally agree that any bathroom that will be viewed as for use by the children HAS to have a bathtub. I am in an area where many houses only have one tub--most masters only have a shower. We have 2 showers, and one tub, with the tub being in the hall bathroom. I would not want my kids using MY master bathroom for their baths. :headache:
 
Full bath = shower, tub, toilet, sink
3/4 bath = shower, toilet, sink
1/2 bath = toilet, sink
 
If you take out a tub though isn't it counted as a half bath instead of a full when you list your house (just heard that on one of those reno shows)?:confused:

Around here, they consider baths with no tub and just a shower a three quarter bath. So you could no longer list it at 3.5. I have to agree with some others. You should keep the tub. By getting rid of the tub, you will limit the potential buyers down the road. When in doubt, ask a local Realtor or an architect perhaps someone you know will know someone in these fields.
 
Ok, so we are going to keep the bath. Now the next question. Is it better to have 2 small sinks (24" vanities) or 1 large sink with tons of counter space and drawers? I am leaning towards the two sinks since I will have two kids sharing the room but I do like the idea of sinks.
 
Ok, so we are going to keep the bath. Now the next question. Is it better to have 2 small sinks (24" vanities) or 1 large sink with tons of counter space and drawers? I am leaning towards the two sinks since I will have two kids sharing the room but I do like the idea of sinks.


Personally for a kids bath, I would do one sink with a more counter space and drawers. Kids can each have a drawer for their own things and bins in the cabinet. Generally, I don't think they would both be using the sink at the same time. Make sure you do enough outlets for hair dryer, curling iron, radio, nightlight, etc. I do wish we had more outlets in the kids bath and our bath sounds smaller than yours.
 
If you only put in a shower it is actually considered a 3/4 bath- not full!! If I was going to buy a house I would want a tub/shower combo, if there wasn't room for a tub & seperate shower!
 
We just remodeled the kids bathroom. We did a large vanity with one sink and two banks of drawers on both sides and an open cabinet below. It was a standard cabinet from Lowes. It is working out just fine for our DD12 & DD11.
 
We just remodeled the kids bathroom. We did a large vanity with one sink and two banks of drawers on both sides and an open cabinet below. It was a standard cabinet from Lowes. It is working out just fine for our DD12 & DD11.

Glad to hear it is working well. I briefly looked at cabinets at Lowes. It looks like they have very nice cabinets. We bought a cabinet from Home Depot for one of our bathrooms. It was a special order Thomasville cabinet and I am disappointed with the quality. Although it is probably on par for what I paid.
 
Personally i'm a big fan of double sinks in the hall bath. They used to be standard issue but cheapend into one sink. Since you'll be in your house for awhile and with the age difference I'd still consider it. One thing you can do: buy a vanity that has a drawer on the botton of the cabinet. Not only do you get the drawer, but the fake drawer that's on the top is no longer wasted space. On top of that, the base shelf is higher by several inches and makes it easier to access and better utiliize the space under the sink.
 
As a mother of two girls, I'll share that when we remodel our hall bathroom we are adding another sink so that each has her own. Having only one sink is causing us major headaches when they both need to get ready to go at the same time. It's torture!!
 
First of all, let me say UGH! I totally underestimated how doing just the bathroom upstairs would completely disrupt and wreck (OK maybe not wreck, but close) the rest of the house. My husband completely gutted everything down to the studs before we left for vacation and we planned on having the bulk of the work done when we were down the shore (Jersey speak for at the beach). That part worked out OK...we were gone when the water was shut off and by the time we came home it was back on.
When we returned we found out that they had to cut a small hole in the ceiling of the used-to-be-dining room which is now my son's playroom and a small hole in my son's bedroom floor in order to install a drain trap thingy. (I know nothing about the plumbing stuff and do not care to but apparently this is not unusual to access the plumbing) Neither one was a real big hole - maybe 1 sq ft each, but that required sheetrock repair, which required spackle and sanding and let me tell you that dust gets EVERYWHERE!
I dunno, I guess I was thinking that since it was the upstairs bathroom, the mess would be confined to the upstairs bathroom and hall, but I found myself scrubbing my whole house last night. Still haven't unpacked anything from vacation - I guess I'll wait until I clean up the dust before I unpack all of the sand covered beach stuff. Makes a lot of sense.
Anyway - I agree with everyone else - keep the tub! And believe it or not, we found a very nice wood vanity with a granite top, granite backsplash, and sink (no faucets) at Costco of all places. We had been looking at Lowes, Home Depot and the like, but found this one by accident and it was less expensive and was granite vs. the "solid surface" tops we were looking at.
 

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