One of my favorite two-story home layouts always includes an en-suite with a downstairs bedroom and a bathroom that includes at least a shower.
In case you haven’t heard of the term en-suite (I hadn’t til a couple years ago when I was binge-watching some HGTV DIY shows. 🙂 )…
According to the dictionary, en-suite is defined as:
(of a bathroom) immediately adjoining a bedroom and forming part of the same set of rooms. Its origin is French and originally meant, “late 18th century (in the sense ‘in agreement or harmony’): from French, literally ‘in sequence.’”
Basically, it just means there is a bedroom and bathroom that are attached making it a suite. When you have a two story house, having a bedroom and bathroom downstairs – with a shower and maybe a tub as well – is really handy. That’s true, even if they are not attached. But doubly true when they are.
Working closely with boomers and seniors – including my sweet parents – my first thought is that it makes a great place for elderly parents to visit. And if your elderly parents need to move in with you, it’s a huge help as it gives them their own little apartment. Lennar builders often adds their multi-gen model to their new homes in various areas. It’s set up to be a full apartment, complete with mini-kitchen and living room. And it’s a delight! But you can do much of the same with other large two-story homes, as long as you have the en-suite downstairs.
Of course, that’s not the only great use for this style of home. It’s also great for:
- overnight visitors
- multigenerational needs – whether elderly parents, kids, grandkids, all or other 🙂
- grandkids visiting
- a private office
- a craft room with easy clean-up – great for kids and grandkids
- broken legs, surgeries, and other ailments that require long convalescence and NO stairs
- aging in place – so that as you grow older and aren’t as comfortable with the stairs, you can stay in your beloved neighborhood and home easily. Save the upstairs for visitors and only go up occasionally to tidy or maybe even hire someone to clean the upstairs occasionally.
As you can see, there are many great ways to put a downstairs en-suite to good use. And many reasons to buy one.
One of the challenges in finding homes with a bedroom and full bathroom downstairs – whether as an en-suite or separately, is that they are hard to search for in the MLS. I have found a couple of tricks to achieve this – although none give 100% other than calling me and I will do a manual search for you. But here are some large, lovely and beautiful homes for sale in Roseville CA, and they should have at least one bedroom and bathroom on the main floor.
Kaye
P.S. Thinking of selling your home with this great option? Give me a buzz. We’ll make sure that it is clearly listed in the MLS to make it easy to show off this valuable option to buyers – leading to an even quicker sale of your home.. :
