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I have a good sized dining room. I'm not sure of the dimensions, but I can fit a full dining set, china cabinet, walk way, and I have a bay window with a seating area in front of it. Behind the back wall is the only full bath in the house and it's tiny. I have a hall closet behind that and one of my bedroom closets on the other side. I could lose both closets to enlarge the bathroom or dining room space. What would you do?
I've considered doing an extension, but I don't know if it's worth spending the money.
How often and for what do you use the dining room? Do you entertain large numbers of people frequently where you need the room or is it usually family and limited numbers?
What are you using the hall bathroom and the closets for?
How many other closets do you have? Is the bedroom closet for the master bedroom? If so, I wouldn't shrink the closet space there. And what is the hall closet used for? Linens? Coats? General stuff? What other closets do you have that could serve the same purpose. What is your total amount of closet space and how does it compare to the overall size of the house?
Large and spacious bathrooms generally have value, but not usually at the expense of storage space. Master bathrooms would be where the primary value is, but if you're taking away master bedroom closets to do it, then you're basically just trading one thing for the other and spending a lot of money to do it, you're not really adding value to the property. If this is just a powder room for visitors, I definitely wouldn't sacrifice bedroom closet space to make it bigger.
How often and for what do you use the dining room? Do you entertain large numbers of people frequently where you need the room or is it usually family and limited numbers?
No, we don't entertain frequently. We're hoping to get pregnant soon, and while I have a table in the kitchen, we don't use it that much. Aside from that, I'm thinking of resale problems.
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Originally Posted by kodaka
What are you using the hall bathroom and the closets for?
The hall bath is our only full bath. The hall closet is for linens and towels. If we put in a larger bath, I suppose I could have a small closet in there for such things.
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How many other closets do you have? Is the bedroom closet for the master bedroom?
The br is the master and has two closets. I don't really use one of them. The hall closet is as noted above.
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If so, I wouldn't shrink the closet space there. And what is the hall closet used for? Linens? Coats? General stuff? What other closets do you have that could serve the same purpose. What is your total amount of closet space and how does it compare to the overall size of the house?
Hmm. good question. I'm not sure how it compares with the space of the house. I have a closet in the living room at the front of the house for jackets and such. I have another, the bigger closet, in the master if I lose this one. The other br has a closet. And that's it for closets. That's why I'm concerned about losing the hall linen closet.
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Large and spacious bathrooms generally have value, but not usually at the expense of storage space. Master bathrooms would be where the primary value is, but if you're taking away master bedroom closets to do it, then you're basically just trading one thing for the other and spending a lot of money to do it, you're not really adding value to the property. If this is just a powder room for visitors, I definitely wouldn't sacrifice bedroom closet space to make it bigger.
Yea, I agree with you. And thanks again for the thoughtful response. The master has another closet. It's not a walk-in (neither are), but it's a good size - almost a walk in since I have to enter it, but not quite.
The expansion wouldn't make this a very spacious bathroom. It would make it doable. It's so small, and again, the only full bath in the house.
I've considered an extension since we have the property, but we live on a busy road (35mph) and I don't know if I want to stay here forever. It's a nice place, tho.
You might ask if the time to move is NOW rather than renovate your current home. There are lots of really good buys to be had. You might be money ahead to buy something existing that is already your ideal floorplan if you have some equity in your current home and can sell for even a slight profit. Something to consider if you do not anticipate staying in your current house long.
Well, we just bought this place last year. My dh loves...loves it. We got it for a great price and there isn't going to be a move for some time. Mean while, I'd like to have a decent bathroom that won't affect resale. I keep hoping a time will come that I won't care about living on a busy road. I don't know how people do it.
I would have someone look at the option of rearranging the interior spaces vs just adding on another bath.
It seems counterintuitive but sometimes a quick/simple addition costs less (gains more) than reworking a half dozen rooms/walls/closets. I'd actually give thought to just adding on the second bath (and possibly another closet and laundry if necessary.) Depending on the exterior material this might be just as cheap and would certianly be a lot less of a nightmare than living with a four room construction zone.
This is based on the idea that other houses in your neighborhood have bath #2. If not or if you don't see yourself sticking around atleast 5-7 years I'd agree with the previous poster who suggested weighing a move against remodelling.
I would have someone look at the option of rearranging the interior spaces vs just adding on another bath. It seems counterintuitive but sometimes a quick/simple addition costs less (gains more) than reworking a half dozen rooms/walls/closets. I'd actually give thought to just adding on the second bath (and possibly another closet and laundry if necessary.)
This is a good point. I have plenty of space to add an addition. I thought, maybe, I could just redo this bath with new tile, tub, toilet, etc, which I would largely do myself (with some help), and have a master bath put in. I just hear it's so expensive and could we get back the money on resale? We have a half bath in the basement. It would be nice to have two baths up stairs.
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Depending on the exterior material this might be just as cheap and would certianly be a lot less of a nightmare than living with a four room construction zone.
Another good point. I was wondering how we would deal with that.
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This is based on the idea that other houses in your neighborhood have bath #2. If not or if you don't see yourself sticking around atleast 5-7 years I'd agree with the previous poster who suggested weighing a move against remodelling.
I'd like to stick around for at least that long. Again, it's a nice house. We have great/fun property, albeit challenging, in a nice neighborhood. It's just the road, tho, we're set back from it. A bath extension would be around 25k roughly from what I've read. We paid about 80k less than the going rate in the neighborhood (223k). A much smaller home sold for 330k a few houses down. I just want to be smart about this.
If you are building linen storage into the bathroom to compensate for the loss of the linen closet, are you really gaining much? If you're merely trading storage places from hall to bathroom, it doesn't sound like a worthwhile expense.
You may not use both closets, but is it likely that future buyers will want both? In a master bedroom, these days most buyers want a his and hers.
If you are building linen storage into the bathroom to compensate for the loss of the linen closet, are you really gaining much? If you're merely trading storage places from hall to bathroom, it doesn't sound like a worthwhile expense.
Well, it would have been a smaller closet. The linen closet we have now is pretty big.
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You may not use both closets, but is it likely that future buyers will want both? In a master bedroom, these days most buyers want a his and hers.
This is a good point as well.
So, between several room construction and being without a shower for who knows how long, it's definitely worth looking into an extension at this point.
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thanks for the responses
