MarylandNed

Yeah but that feeling often changes over time. We lived in Canada and now live in the US. We have 4 kids and have 3 full bathrooms and 4 big bedrooms. Try surviving on 3 small bedrooms and 1 bathroom with 4 kids - especially when there are friends or relatives visiting.

With one exception, the houses of our UK family members only have 1 bathroom. The one exception has a bathroom and a WC (toilet & sink). It's a nightmare when we all go to visit and it seems like there is a constant backlog to use the bathroom. That never happens when they visit us.

Once the kids are gone and you get older, things change. The big house becomes emptier and quieter and harder to maintain. Parts of it don't get used unless the kids all return to stay at the same time. Downsizing the big house then looks very appealing.

Lorry1

Yes but how often do you have visitors?
We have my brother, his wife and 2 little ones over to stay from Devon about 3 times a year. So for maybe 9 days a year there is a wait for the bathroom. It's not worth buying a big house with 3 bathrooms for that small amount of time where you may be inconvenienced for an hour a day. We also have the same in reverse when we visit them 3 times a year. For the majority of the year there is just 4 of us so we have plenty of space in our 4 bed house with bathroom & w.c.

When our kids leave (one day!!!) we tease that we are downsizing to a one room studio or just a caravan to tour in so they can never return, but I guess we will be nice and get a 2 bed so we have a spare room for guests.

Partially discharged

A similar analogy can be achieved in terms of the type of car you buy. I know people who buy minivans/trucks/huge vehicles for the rare times they have to transport many people, large amounts of wood etc from the hardware store. The rest of the year it just takes up room and petrol.

Lorry1

Yes it can. In Canada we bought a minvan because I was childminding for a while. Then I gave that up and it just became a big gas guzzler which was mainly used just to get me to work and then as a family car & occasionally I would carry other peoples kids around too. Now we are in England we have as a 2 seater & a small family car. Much nicer

MarylandNed

I don't just mean visitors from the UK. With our 4 kids, there are always visitors in the form of friends hanging out and/or sleeping over. And they're not shy about taking showers and borrowing clean clothes.

BristolUK

When we were first in our home here with me, my wife and the two kids we were really glad of the half bathroom having left the in-laws apartment where six of us survived with just one - why can't they just call it a spare toilet? Even more glad of it when my mother in law joined us.

We're back to 4 again and I wouldn't want to be in a house with only one bathroom again.

And yet, I was one of four boys growing up in a house with both parents and just one toilet for 6 of us wasn't an issue. Although, thinking back to my single digit years we had one room with a bath and sink and another that was just the toilet, so at least someone taking a bath didn't block toilet use.

But we used to visit other relatives also with only one bathroom - my grandparents had an outside one - and it still wasn't an issue.

I suppose it's one of those things you get used to and don't need the "work around" to avoid the problem.

Lorry1

well that's your issue we have 2 girls who have sleepovers often and don't have a problem with bathrooms.

christmasoompa

Yes, but that's just your experience from your relatives - houses with more than one bathroom aren't unusual in the UK? We have 3 bathrooms, plus another toilet. Even our last house, which was a tiny 1970's house on an estate, had 3 bathrooms.

We also have a house in Cornwall, that has 5 bathrooms.

I don't know anybody with less than 2 bathrooms, and that's including people that live in little terraced houses or even flats - I'd say your family are very unusual if they don't have at least one en-suite tbh, it does seem to be the norm in the UK now.

christmasoompa

That's very true! We've only got 1.5 acres, but it's still a hassle - luckily my daughter is now big enough to get on the sit on mower and do it for pocket money.

BristolUK

Either that first line indicates you move in different circles or there's been a big change since I left.
My mum lives in a 3 bed semi with only one bathroom. I've known 7 homes for my three brothers (one a 4 bed house, the others 3) and all with just one bathroom. I only knew one person with more than one bathroom and that was a property they were renovating that was a former B&B. No en-suite bathroom either.

christmasoompa

I think there's just been a big change. Even tiny new build houses all now have an en-suite bathroom to the main bedroom, it's the norm. Anybody I know that only had one bathroom (i.e. my parents), have added at least another.

Our last house (the tiny 1970's on an estate) only had one bathroom when we bought it, we added an en-suite and a downstairs shower room at the back of the garage. Very few people would buy a house without an en-suite these days, so along with eat in kitchens, they're what most people are doing to their houses in terms of home improvements, particularly if they plan to sell.

BristolUK

Yes...I was googling to get a better idea and the vast majority of search results were about buyers wanting extra or en-suite bathrooms as well as tips on adding value.

And the results not about that were about safety or design issues.

MarylandNed

You don't know anyone in the UK with 1 bathroom? Wow! I'm talking about full bathrooms that have a toilet, sink & shower (and/or bath). Of course there are exceptions, but I would say that 1 full bathroom is the norm in the UK (certainly among the people I know) and definitely not so in Canada/US.

Of my closest relatives in the UK, 9 out of 9 dwellings have 1 full bathroom. 2 of them also have a WC. None have 2 or more full bathrooms. None have an en suite bathroom.

christmasoompa

I'd say that's very unusual. As I said above, most people have put en-suites in if they didn't already have one, and even tiny terraced houses now have 2 baths as standard. Any new build that only had one bathroom just wouldn't sell.

The UK housing market has changed a lot, and en-suites are pretty much required by buyers now, so a proper house with 1 bathroom would be very rare IMO.

I personally don't know anybody with just one bathroom unless you count students, but the majority of my friends/family are families and even in a 2 bed house they have 2 bathrooms.

Aviator

Even by Canadian standards 6000'² is more than large, it's huge. Don't know anyone who has or has had that size house, perhaps we mix in the wrong circles. 2500-3000'² seems more typical. Friends had 4500'² and that seemed massive for a family of 4.