"brugnospamsia" wrote
| I have a rather inconveniently laid out victorian terrace with the
| stairs in between the two rooms upstairs and down which means that
| you have to walk through the back bedroom to get to the bathroom -
| unless you halve the floor area by making a corridor around the edge
| - thus spoiling the better bedroom.
| http://uk.geocities.com/gentlegreeng...outchanges.JPG

I think exactly this problem came up on Property Ladder and the advice was
*definately* make the bathroom accessible not through a bedroom. The
property isn't really a *two* bedroom house without it. In that case the
solution was to put a corridor down one side of the bedroom.

For the rental market, two house-sharing adults will not tolerate the only
bathroom (and loo) being through a bedroom, and most families will be put
off it as well. This will also affect the resale value.

I would suggest not using a 'folding screen' between the back bedroom and
the corridor but a proper wall. It will probably be required for B Regs
compliance anyway.

Bear in mind, however, that replacing the staircase with a new one in a
different location / orientation may require full compliance with current
Building Regulations for the staircase, as well as for the new walls etc.

On the ground floor, I would suggest that the layout of the rooms is the
wrong way round; the dining room should be closer to the kitchen. What many
people will prefer is a larger lounge and a kitchen-diner.

What you might consider is putting in a U shaped staircase, with its head in
your proposed 'new' location to serve the bedrooms and bathroom; but with
its base towards the rear of the house, i.e. taking the dividing wall
between the downstairs and back rooms backwards to give a larger lounge.
Open up between the kitchen and the back room to make a kitchen-diner with a
french door to the garden. Drawback to the U is making an alcove in the
upstairs room to accommodate the non-straight-line headroom.

Sample rough-up diagram is at (5.3kB)
http://www.stirlingcity.co.uk/ofc1/houselayout.png

Owain