All bedrooms with ensuites!!!

hey everyone, just a enquiry, I'm getting close to chosing my build, we really like the metricon design the nolan 50, my only problem is it has ensuites for every room, my wife is not a fan, obviously the cleaning side of things and thinks its overkill. What are everyones thoughts on ensuites, is it too much, I've done some thinking and re arranging the plan by taking out all ensuites and replacing there spots with massive wir for each bedroom and remaining space add a big bathroom for all kids with double vanity in there, What are your thoughts, thanks in advance

wow!! I would love to have ensuites with every bathroom!!!

I suggest you trash out with your wife whether to have ensuite or not first.. If ensuite is the go then go for this design! If not then better dont choose this design....

Builder always like to charge through the roof if you make any modification but give very little credit if u remove anything. Just read some of the examples from this forums.. if you decide to remove the ensuite the builder might only credit you a little bit of $$ but if you want to add an ensuite they will charge u $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!

personally for me i will prefer to go to the all ensuite.. if worried about cleaning too many toilets, perhaps lock up the not used ensuites and dont use it. Only use a few designated toilets.

Having many ensuites could also help the sales price if u decide to sell in future !!

Hi, overkill IMO. At a quick look at the plan, could increase the size of the leisure by removing bed 4 ensuite giving and move bed 3 door to by flush with the start of the bed 3? It would still give you room for a good size WIR for Bed 4, but might be better use of the space. Added a picture of what I mean I've even be tempered to reduce the WIR size to ad a study nook or make the bedrooms bigger (not that they are small).

Build what you like, but many people will say having bathrooms/ensuites in every bedroom is a big downer for resale value, as in getting people interested in buying to have all that extra work.

That said, others might think it a huge bonus to have all those ensuites.

Barnicles279 you make a lot of sense, with the builder taking you for a ride with changes like that, probably would say about 5k credit to remove but if wanted one, it would be 25k. Makes a lot of sense to not use some of them while the kids are so young

And yes bpratt exactly my wifes opinion too, she is also scared of possibly having plumbing issues in future, would be a disaster

surtees first of all, how did you do that, because i would love to have whatever your using to modify plans like that, would put a lot of things in perspective, so please share, i do like what you have done there, which is what i was thinking to do but i might be missing something, I'm guessing i remove a bedroom to even have a bathroom for the kids, there was no bathroom. i can't do that as i have 3 kids

thanks for your thoughts guys

it's your house , it's your money, so have a good think about it. Also if u think u need the ensuite in future it's easier to add them now .. if u decide to add ensuite few years later, it's going to cost $$$$$$$$$ again.

I think he uses "photoshop" or "paint" program to come up with the modified floor plan but u can also manually print out the floor plan / cut / use correction liquid to modify the floor plan to your needs.. good luck and do keep us updated on what u go with.. i'll be interested to know

thanks barnacles279 and will do

Hi Stoff, yes I used the snipping tool in windows and copy/paste it in paint and then modified from there, no real tricks just got used to doing it with our floor plan. Using pprint outs works too.
Yes I agree you probably would want an up stairs bathroom for the kids I would suggest using the one that backs onto your ensuite keeps all the plumbing in one spot that way. and then leave the WIR's between bed 2 and 3

Well I am having ensuites in 3 rooms and the forth has the ability to close off the passage where the common room, powder and bathroom is. I live in Singapore and higher end houses all have attached bathrooms and it is awesome. sure there is more cleaning but the benefit is better.

I have also looked at a lot of high end builds in perth and multiple bedrooms with ensuites is quite common. I am not sure I but into that it reduces the amount of people that would want such a house.

Actually re looking at the design I know why I like it, its because it is quite similar to my house. hehe.

Convince the wife, you will love the luxury.

I personally don't like the ensuites in every bedroom. The cleaning would be nightmare.
I think another factor to consider for you is the cost to upgrade those bathrooms. Things like back to wall toilet suites, floor to ceiling wall tiles, porcelain tiles, better showerhead etc. The numbers add up.

That's a good point about the upgrade costs for the bathrooms. I think you'd want to be prepared to build them stock without upgrades.

I think the value of this depends a lot on the house usage. If it's a share house for adults, then it makes good sense. For families though, I'm not so sure. The only bath in the house is in the master bed ensuite, so for bathing young children you need to use that one. The master ensuite is also the only large bathroom, so everyone else is using a cramped bathroom, rather than the more luxurious space you'd get in a shared bathroom. It will also have an impact on family dynamics. A shared bathroom is something that forces people to share and accommodate, which is a good life skill to develop. So while there are nice things about kids all disappearing into their own private worlds, it may not be all developmental positives. On the other hand, it could be a trigger for kids to look after their own bathrooms, but then you need keep on top of mould developing regardless of the child's personal views of how clean it needs to be.

Also consider with this house that despite all the upstairs facilities, there's no downstairs shower. This makes it hard to convert/use as a house in retirement after all the kids have left and you have mobility issues. While some people will move on to a different house at this stage, others prefer to be able to just live in the downstairs of their existing house, and have the upstairs for guests.

Also note that for a large house, the garage is woefully small.

Good point on the absence of a downstairs shower. Regarding upgrade costs I paid 2500 to switch from builder supplied to V&B for the 5 toilets in my house. From memory the toilets supplied were wall facing but not the ones I liked. The biggest cost by far is the floor to ceiling tiles as that escalates fairly quickly as does the accessories fit-out of the spaces as the builder supplied ones may not be to your liking.

My kids are teenagers so its not like they are little and yes they will have to clean their own bathroom.

I think it is horses for courses and what you want at the end of the day. We have lived with several bathrooms for many years and it is very nice to have. I have a girl and a boy and they definitely like to take their own time so not sharing avoids some clashes.

Hehe I am just throwing up the counter argument as what appears to be the loan "for" ensuites.

Either way you could opt for the Nolan 45 and upsize it a little where you want bigger pieces. Also from the way the house sits and if you have yard space you could have a drive though garage at the front that leads to a rear garage.

Thanks surtees, I'm going to try that, but I'm terrible on that side of things, but will give it a try

Aussiemark we definitely want to have a high end home, but having all bathrooms to bedrooms is doing my head in, i like it, the mrs doesn't, and no one really has that in Adelaide which makes me nervous with resale in the long term, but if I'm not selling for 25-30 years it might be the norm, who knows, the nolan 45 is not available in Adelaide which it used to be but only has the 50 option now

Onejohn i do believe that there is a luxury package you can upgrade for around 25-30k to give you floor to ceiling, stone bench tops, etc so much more, hopefully if i chose to get this home, when i sit down with the rep, it is all included for the price otherwise it will be getting out of hand. There is no point i believe going quite full on in a house and then build it stock standard, it won't feel right for me.
As you were saying with garage etc, ill give you a little info on my plans, we will be trying to put a shower in downstairs powder room, i believe its a must if me or the kids get injured and can't climb stairs, also future possible bedroom to sitting when I'm old and slow, haha
We also will be extending the original garage to be 6x6m at least and adding a triple garage 3m wide as our block is very wide at 19.8, still leaving me 3m on the other side of the house, which is great for reaching the backyard
My other plan is to convert the rumpus to a grand outdoor room and leaving it connected to original outdoor room putting a alfresco kitchen along the wall where the dining is and having that place to entertain, not to sure how much use we will get out of having 3 living rooms downstairs so to transform it, i think it would be a winner
One more upgrade we may consider is adding a room upstairs next to main bedroom above garage for a large wir, but adding these things are plenty of $$$$ so depending on price this could quickly be cut

Boysenberry2014 yes you have nailed it with the cleaning factor, we are pretty set but my wife can't get her head around all the bathrooms, its going to be our dream home for many years and want to get it right, we haven't even started yet and I'm already pulling my hair out, haha

By the looks of it to me, it doesn't seem like the Nolan is the ideal plan for you. Ensuites question aside, I would be looking for a plan that requires the least amount of changes. From my experience, the credit back for removing things is not equal to what it actually costs.

As for the ensuites question, maybe the compromise is two bathrooms upstairs? One main one and one shared between two rooms?

I like the idea of a shared bathroom between 2 bedrooms. Very American and i think practical. I would never do ensuite in every room unless i knew that i would use them as guest rooms alot.

We've just built a house with 8 bedrooms (ones a toy room for now) plus 5 bathrooms. 2 of the bathrooms are ensuites, another 1 is shared between 2 bedrooms (1 of which is a spare) and the last 2 bathrooms are shared between the other 4 bedrooms. We were going to have another bathroom but cut it in favour of bigger WIR's for 2 of the bedrooms.