omishev Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 We are dreaming of building a house and are thinking of doing something usual with the bathrooms. We thought it would work well for our family to have one bathroom for me to share with the girls and one for my husband to share with the boys. Another idea was to have more of a public locker room design where you have a couple toilet stalls, a couple shower stalls with dressing areas and a separate sink area so you can use all the parts and still have privacy. OR we could merge the ideas so the girls have one shower, one toilet and a large sink/mirror area that are all separate. Same for the boys but they want a urinal too 🤣. Has anyone seen this? Pros/Cons? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zimom Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Con: Resale 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omishev Posted October 22, 2020 Author Share Posted October 22, 2020 1 minute ago, ZiMom said: Con: Resale Eh... yeah.... there are other weird things we want to do too.... like a hose off shower in the garage, massive mud room/coat closet, and lots of tiny nook/loft/attic bedrooms. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 My former MIL has one of the best Master bath lay outs I have ever seen. There is one long counter for double sinks. Then opposite if that is a wall that divides the his and her areas... they each had their own toilet and he had a shower and she had a tub. I would not want to share a bathroom with my kids. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 7 minutes ago, omishev said: Eh... yeah.... there are other weird things we want to do too.... like a hose off shower in the garage, massive mud room/coat closet, and lots of tiny nook/loft/attic bedrooms. Love the hose off shower idea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 I have a friend who has nine children. They are mostly grown now, but they had a room in their house that was a laundry room/closet/single toilet/single shower. They had two washers and two dryers. The idea is that they would do the laundry and hang it up in each person's cubby. If you came in muddy from their farm, you could strip into the washing machine and shower in that room and put on clean clothes. Each child had a limited wardrobe, FWIW. I thought that was brilliant. But yes, resale. They bought it from another large family. I think I remember her saying that it came that way and had been on the market for awhile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 4 minutes ago, Scarlett said: My former MIL has one of the best Master bath lay outs I have ever seen. There is one long counter for double sinks. Then opposite if that is a wall that divides the his and her areas... they each had their own toilet and he had a shower and she had a tub. I would not want to share a bathroom with my kids. Here is my crude drawing. Where the arrows are goes in to the master bedroom... a doorway on either side of the bed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Resale! We saw a house with an unusual bathroom and immediately said, "Um, no way. That's crazy." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambam Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 We had Jack-n-Jill baths upstairs at last house. Think shower/tub and commode room with sinks/mirrors on both sides. So each bedroom had a sink/mirror attached to their bedroom and the commode/shower/tub room was in between. That meant there were two doors to the commode/shower/tub room, but each child could have their own sink. Personally, I would not ever want a bathroom with two commodes stall style. Not, not even thinking it ever. Those are public restrooms. I'd totally mark that house off my list forever. And I don't think my kids would have appreciated that concept either. Now, I'd be okay with a regular commode and a bidet, but you usually only see those in high end houses in our area, and quite frankly, again, I don't want anyone else in there if I'm using one or the other. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 I’d be more inclined to go with the middle ground that seems to be popular in home plans these days, with a door that opens to a sink or double sink, and an additional door that opens to shower/tub and toilet. I wish I had that so kids could be brushing their teeth while others were showering or using the toilet. I would not want to share a bathroom with my kids. I haven’t had to since I only had one plus a newborn, and now I’m spoiled. They can use my bathroom if the other is occupied, but that’s different to me for some reason. I want my grown up bathroom right off my bedroom. Our last apartment had a sink in our bedroom and I wasn’t a huge fan. Yes, it had its advantages, but I felt like I was sleeping in a bathroom. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Fixer upper...the family that moved back from Istanbul? had a kids bathroom like that. I really don’t like the idea, and my teens don’t like it either. Privacy concerns really start to hit then. I assume your kids are all still little? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gstharr Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 I know of a house that has a toilet-no sink, mirror--just a working toilet in the small coat closetat the end of a hallway. I thought it a bit unusual to have a bath and 1/8th. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 3 hours ago, Bambam said: We had Jack-n-Jill baths upstairs at last house. Think shower/tub and commode room with sinks/mirrors on both sides. So each bedroom had a sink/mirror attached to their bedroom and the commode/shower/tub room was in between. That meant there were two doors to the commode/shower/tub room, but each child could have their own sink. This is more what I would do. If you have more space and a larger family, you can make all the spaces in this configuration a little roomier than someone else might. I wouldn't make the sink something that is visible in the bedroom at all times--it would still be in a closet-like area. Even when there is no shared bathroom, many people have the toilet and shower behind a door with the sink in the more open area so someone else can be brushing their teeth or doing their hair/makeup. I don't think entirely separate boy/girl bathrooms would be odd, but I wouldn't put more than one toilet or shower in each one, unless you did something where the two different showers could later be turned into one bigger one for a smaller family (without huge expense or a lot of retrofitting). We are trying to figure out what to do with our 2.5 baths if we try to make our home friendly to aging in place (but not necessarily make a bedroom downstairs unless it's needed). If we make the downstairs bath into a full bath, I am not sure I want to maintain the expense of 3 bathrooms as things age and need replacement. I do think we'll make the downstairs bath into a bath/laundry combo in some way. I've seen several of those that are really nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Oh, on the two totally separate bathrooms for boys and girls, if you aren't doing a master bath in addition to that, I would try to make the layout accommodate something like a wall/door change that would covert one of those baths in such a way that it could changed into a master bath suite with very little fuss. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddcrook Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 3 hours ago, gstharr said: I know of a house that has a toilet-no sink, mirror--just a working toilet in the small coat closetat the end of a hallway. I thought it a bit unusual to have a bath and 1/8th. Ewwwww! No sink? 😲 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kassia Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 8 minutes ago, ddcrook said: Ewwwww! No sink? 😲 that was my thought. How does that work? Or do I not want to know... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I love my master bath, so that part of the plan wouldn't work for me. But, one thing that we did that is kind of weird is that we have an enclosed shower on the back of the house, outside. We do a lot of gardening and I got tired of cleaning up dirt. We realized that the water heater is in a basement garage and we could inexpensively run pipe and just have a hole put in the back wall for the shower head/fixtures. We had an enclosure built around it - the whole thing wasn't too expensive, just a little floor that's like a deck and then walls around the sides for privacy - so that people can shower before they come in. It is a favorite for me and the kids, and while we love it for an after-garden or after-baseball clean-up, somebody showers out there just for fun most nights during the summer. I don't know if it would work for your plan/location, but I thought I'd suggest it since you're considering a garage hose-off place. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 There were us 6 kids growing up. We had a large bathroom with three doors in the bathroom. When you walk in, there was the sink. One door led to a shower/tub, one door led to the toilet, one door led to a shower. So, realistically, two people could be taking a shower and one kid could be on the potty while other kids are brushing their teeth. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xahm Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I'm imagining a large bathroom that has an area with three sinks that you enter from the hall, then four doors off it, two leading to toilets and two to tubs or showers. If configured carefully, maybe walls could later be rearranged to separate the whole thing into 2 bathrooms, one entered from the hall and one from a bedroom. That would feel less weird than stalls, and boy/girl shouldn't matter much, plus easier for resale later. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusyMom5 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 2 hours ago, Kassia said: that was my thought. How does that work? Or do I not want to know... I have a toilet with no sink right off a mud room- we live on a farm and wanted a mud room to come in, wash up, go to the bathroom, ect without tracking into the rest of the house. We walled in one corner for a shower stall and stool. They use the sink in the larger mudroom. I admit it is weird, but it works for farm living! I have lots of kids and in your situation I would set up a large girls bathroom, boys bathroom, and one off the master. Id put double sinks, and maybe put the shower snd/or stool in a different section with a closed door. I would also definitely find a way to put a bathroom where kids can run in and out without tracking into the house! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I would not like that set up. I can't imagine teens liking that set up either. But maybe I am getting caught up on the verbiage and what I imagine that to mean. Shower stalls, seem like something with a communal floor. So, if one person is menstruating, the run off would be seen by the person in the nest stall. Toilet stalls....very odd in a private home. A counter with two sinks isn't a big deal, but 3 or more would be odd for resale. Urinal in a home, not a big deal, as long as it isn't the guest bath. That would be really odd for most private homes. Especially for most girls to be sitting on the toilet and be staring into a urinal. In a 2nd bath for the occupants of the home, not too big of a deal. A communal bathroom would be embarrassing, if one of family members has GI issues or needs a bit more time in the loo. The smells tend to waft and kids can be cruel. I wouldn't want to have a kid who got constipated, to avoid going to the bathroom. I don't understand why you wouldn't just have a few bathrooms? Or a few full baths and half baths? Why make it more uncommon than that? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I would prefer more, smaller bathrooms to fewer, larger, multi-person bathrooms. I have a relative who had four boys and had a bathroom with several sinks, a shower, a bathtub with shower, and a toilet. It may have been nice when the boys were younger, but once the first got married and brought his wife home for the holidays, they started realizing the limitations. We added two bedrooms and two baths to a former house. The architect originally did two bedrooms and a Jack-and-Jill bath. As I looked at it, we had two sinks, two toilets, and one shower and a BUNCH of doors. With a slight rearrangement we were able to put 2 complete baths in the same space because we didn't need all of the space for the second doors to open--the only extra cost was an extra shower (and a couple less doors). I just couldn't figure out what would happen when Jill had a friend over who went in the bathroom and locked it from Jack's side and then forgot to unlock that door so Jack couldn't get in the bathroom. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 (edited) The lack of privacy would get to me and my kids. This is not the same thing, but we looked at a great house that we had to turn down. The guest bathroom was originally a small butler's pantry or bar area just off the dining room, like 2 feet from the dining table. With a louvered door. I simply couldn't imagine having to tell guests to use that bathroom during a dinner even if we had put in a regular door. The realtor told me that was a huge turnoff for people. If there had been another possible guest bathroom on the ground floor and we'd had the $$ to convert the room back to a little pantry area, it would have been awesome. Just relating this to say that weird bathrooms can be a problem. Edited October 23, 2020 by marbel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 18 hours ago, Dreamergal said: am a big believer in making a house for the people who live there. Me too. Maybe not for some families who know they will only live somewhere for less than three years, like military families. Ordinarily, though, I want my house to meet my needs, not some future buyer’s needs. I’m also dead lucky because I’m married to my builder. 😉 I have seen enough episodes of House Hunters to know that one man’s weird layout is another man’s dream. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skimomma Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I also think the communal aspects would be a bit too much for teens and for sure the adults! But I also wouldn't worry about resale unless you know you won't be somewhere for long. Keeping it in mind as a factor is always good but I wouldn't not do something just because of resale. I could see having a long counter with 2-3 sinks and two separate toilet/shower rooms off of it as long as everything had doors, fans, and actual walls all the way to the floor/ceiling. The housing in my area is mostly very old, including my house. The houses were built without plumbing so odd bathroom situations are common. I have seen the single-toilet-in-a-closet phenomenon. Typically this is not far from the kitchen or a utility sink and people just go to that sink to wash up. Kind of gross, if it is a kitchen sink, but considering that this arrangement replaced an outhouse, it is better than nothing. I know before our house had bathrooms, we had a single toilet in the basement with no sink. Many houses still have this leftover to use as a back-up and it is kind of funny because it almost looks/feels like a throne. And since all bathrooms had to be shoehorned in and often with the constraints of where the plumbing could be shoehorned in, odd things happen. Our bathroom used to be a bedroom so it is not in a super odd place but I have seen it all over the years. I have to snicker at people who don't want to share a bathroom with their kids. I didn't think having more than one bathroom was that odd....but I guess it is now? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 With that amount of bathroom real estate on the table it seems more practical to have a third bathroom instead of two super-sized ones. People past childhood want total privacy in the bathroom. A barracks situation isn’t ideal. It seems useful for a super-sized family, but impractical for less than 7+ kids. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I think what I'd prefer is to add an extra half-bath somewhere, just a toilet and sink. Another option is to have a two-sink vanity outside of the part with the toilet and bath/shower. (And a door in-between, obviously.) We actually have that now in our current home. We don't really need it like that now, but it would have been nice when all the kids were home! Encourage kids to do their hair, make-up etc. in their own rooms. We had one full bath and a half-bath with 7 people, and eventually figured out a shower/bath schedule that worked for everyone. The half-bath was for just toilet use. My kids often ended up brushing their teeth in the kitchen sink! On the other hand, if you have a really big family and you see yourselves living there for a long time, then do what works best for your family. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gstharr Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 15 hours ago, Kassia said: that was my thought. How does that work? Or do I not want to know... I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I flushed the toilet to see if I was being pranked. It flushed. But, I DID NOT use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hannah Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 22 hours ago, Scarlett said: Here is my crude drawing. Where the arrows are goes in to the master bedroom... a doorway on either side of the bed. I really like this layout. Its practical, but not too unusual. You could have four people using this space at one time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OH_Homeschooler Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 20 hours ago, gstharr said: I know of a house that has a toilet-no sink, mirror--just a working toilet in the small coat closetat the end of a hallway. I thought it a bit unusual to have a bath and 1/8th. I lived in a house with a toilet room for about a year. The toilet was off the kitchen so you had to wash your hands in the kitchen sink when you were done. The room was tiny, but it was nice to have the extra toilet because there was just one full bathroom in the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 18 hours ago, marbel said: The lack of privacy would get to me and my kids. This is not the same thing, but we looked at a great house that we had to turn down. The guest bathroom was originally a small butler's pantry or bar area just off the dining room, like 2 feet from the dining table. With a louvered door. I simply couldn't imagine having to tell guests to use that bathroom during a dinner even if we had put in a regular door. The realtor told me that was a huge turnoff for people. If there had been another possible guest bathroom on the ground floor and we'd had the $$ to convert the room back to a little pantry area, it would have been awesome. Just relating this to say that weird bathrooms can be a problem. Yeah, bathroom smells/sounds in the dining room or in a gathering area are not comfortable for guests. We have a downstairs bath that is kind of echo-y, and it has no fan. Thankfully, sometimes the TV is on, or if people are there, there is a whole room and a partial hall between it and the dining room. 8 hours ago, skimomma said: I have to snicker at people who don't want to share a bathroom with their kids. I didn't think having more than one bathroom was that odd....but I guess it is now? I think it depends on the age of the home and the neighborhood. My grandmother has one of the toilet rooms, but hers has a teeny, tiny sink that is all but in your lap. I know another family that had a tiny toilet room, and it's sink was a triangular one in the corner, and it was also very tiny. Neither of them had a cabinet as part of the sink (not sure they even had a pedestal), and both were in old homes. A few older homes I've seen might have a toilet room like this, but then have an unusually large bathroom for the size of house--my guess is another room or a small bedroom was converted for that purpose when plumbing was installed. My friends growing up had a toilet in the basement, and I thought it was awesome that they could play and not have to go up two flights of stairs. Our basement was hand dug, so we couldn't play in the basement, let alone use a bathroom down there. They had one of those older homes that had a door to the side yard that opened into a little landing that was 3 or so steps from the main level of the house, and a little less than a flight of stairs down to the basement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackermom Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I used to live in a house where the second floor had 3 large bedrooms and 3 full baths alternating in a ring around a central staircase. The master had bathrooms on either side, which also led out to the hall. The mom's bath was across from the girls' room, and the dad's bath was across from the boys' room. There was also a bathroom between the girls and boys rooms. So, generally the kids had access to their own shared room, but if it was in use, they could access the master bathrooms. It was a flexible design, and I could see another family allocating things differently, like connecting each bedroom to its own bathroom, just by reworking the entrances a bit. There was a half bath on the first floor, and a fenced-in outdoor shower in the backyard for dirty kids and dogs. I lived in a little suite in the attic, btw, in exchange for keeping all those bathrooms clean, lol Bedroom (girls) Bath (kids) Bedroom (boys) stairs Bath (mom/girls) Bedroom (master) Bath (dad/boys) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 On 10/22/2020 at 7:30 PM, ddcrook said: Ewwwww! No sink? 😲 To be fair, I can see it being helpful if you have a lot of people in the house, especially lots of kids. You can wait a minute to wash your hands in the other restroom, but sometimes you can't wait a minute for other things, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omishev Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 On 10/23/2020 at 10:57 AM, skimomma said: I have to snicker at people who don't want to share a bathroom with their kids. I didn't think having more than one bathroom was that odd....but I guess it is now? I can only imagine what my grandmother would say! One bathroom and 8 kids. They had a schedule posted on the door and you better not overrun your time 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omishev Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 On 10/22/2020 at 11:19 PM, Tap said: I would not like that set up. I can't imagine teens liking that set up either. But maybe I am getting caught up on the verbiage and what I imagine that to mean. Shower stalls, seem like something with a communal floor. So, if one person is menstruating, the run off would be seen by the person in the nest stall. Toilet stalls....very odd in a private home. A counter with two sinks isn't a big deal, but 3 or more would be odd for resale. Urinal in a home, not a big deal, as long as it isn't the guest bath. That would be really odd for most private homes. Especially for most girls to be sitting on the toilet and be staring into a urinal. In a 2nd bath for the occupants of the home, not too big of a deal. A communal bathroom would be embarrassing, if one of family members has GI issues or needs a bit more time in the loo. The smells tend to waft and kids can be cruel. I wouldn't want to have a kid who got constipated, to avoid going to the bathroom. I don't understand why you wouldn't just have a few bathrooms? Or a few full baths and half baths? Why make it more uncommon than that? "Stalls" was probably a bad word to use. We would want full walls/doors etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omishev Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 On 10/23/2020 at 8:11 PM, slackermom said: I used to live in a house where the second floor had 3 large bedrooms and 3 full baths alternating in a ring around a central staircase. The master had bathrooms on either side, which also led out to the hall. The mom's bath was across from the girls' room, and the dad's bath was across from the boys' room. There was also a bathroom between the girls and boys rooms. So, generally the kids had access to their own shared room, but if it was in use, they could access the master bathrooms. It was a flexible design, and I could see another family allocating things differently, like connecting each bedroom to its own bathroom, just by reworking the entrances a bit. There was a half bath on the first floor, and a fenced-in outdoor shower in the backyard for dirty kids and dogs. I lived in a little suite in the attic, btw, in exchange for keeping all those bathrooms clean, lol Bedroom (girls) Bath (kids) Bedroom (boys) stairs Bath (mom/girls) Bedroom (master) Bath (dad/boys) Cool! But $$$$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackermom Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 3 minutes ago, omishev said: Cool! But $$$$ Yes, true. They were a wealthy family, with a relatively large house. I found it interesting that they chose to have the kids share rooms, when most families in that area prioritized individual rooms. This family was definitely more concerned about bathroom flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Well, we are a family of 6, and have only had one working shower for the 10 years we've lived here. The other bathroom is supposed to be a full bath, but has been under construction most of that time. We had a working bathtub for a few years, and now again have a bathtub, but no shower in there. But most of those years we basically had 1 full bathroom and one half bathroom. Never been an issue, actually. Of course, our hot water is such that multiple people showering at once wouldn't work out anyway, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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