My fiance and I just bought a house, and before we move in we are making some upgrades. Right now the kitchen is small with limited cabinet space, and there is a room attatched to the kitchen that is kind of an office / small bedroom, MAYBE could be dining room, but it is little. Otherwise, there are 2 bedrooms and one bathroom, and a good size living room. Would it be wise to knock out the wall btwn the kithen and office to make a large eat in kitchen, thus making the house definitly 2 bedrooms, or would it be better to keep the kitchen small and keep the possibility of having 3 bedrooms? I am thinking about resale of the home, we are in Chesapeake, VA, and would be keeping the home for a couple of years, the idea is that this is our starter house. Also, this room that is off the kitchen has a doorway that connects it to the kitchen, so in my opinion it would be strange as a bedroom, but I am afraid the house may not sell as well as only a 2 bedroom. Thanks for any opinions!
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lots of families are smaller now so 2 instead of three Bdrms fore a smallish house doesn't make me wince.
But before just knocking out a wall, you want to know if it is a structural wall or not. Taking one of them out with no engineering plan WILL definitely damage resale value!
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Nothing wrong with a 2BR house, but you need to consider the big picture. Sketch what you have in mind, and ask your realtor if she thinks you have improved or reduced the salability.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
How many heated sq ft is the house? How old is it? A lot of older houses are chopped up into small rooms, where as the trend for today's homes are "open" floor plans which gives a more spacious feel.
As piff says, if you want to remove a wall you need to find out if that wall is holding up anything other than just itself.
Edited 10/7/2007 9:50 pm ET by Matt
We are finishing up a remodel of our house. It was a three bedroom and we've made it into a one bedroom. We do have a den area off the living room that is fitted with a pocket-wall so it makes up into a guest bedroom. Our realtor advisor said this would be OK for resale as long as we did the job really well. This we are doing..... custom everything.
We've no intention of a quick resale so that plays a factor. It's our house.
We've no regrets, now this is a livable house. Before we had two extra rooms with stuff stored in them.
There is a house for every buyer and a buyer for every house.
You bought the house with the undersized 3rd BR and someone else will too. If you convert it to a nook, the next people buying will come up with a brilliant idea: "Hey....lets convert this nook into a 3rd bedroom....". It sounds like it originally started as a nook and somone converted it to a study, LOL.
Go ahead and make the house useful for you and your needs. It probably won't cost that much to convert it back to a bedroom if the market conditions dictate that when you go to sell.
Congrats on your new home!
jim
fka (formerly known as) blue
Thanks all for the replies! It is a small house, about 916 sq ft (plus an unfinished attic, which will be nice for storage but is not livable space). And the wall is not load bearing, so we should be able to remove it with no problems.
Thanks again!
Jen
"the wall is not load bearing,"Just be sure.
A structural wall is not necessarily a load bearing wall as you put it. Sometimes it is part of the overall shear and wind bracing situation.. NOt likely in such a small house but just wanted to clarify.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
overall shear and wind bracing situation
Yeah, and Chesapeake is just a few miles from the coast."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Jen
I just did this job the kitchen is small I cut the wall open nto go into the dining room what you can't see is I installed cabinets 2-30 x 341/2 and 1 12 x 34 1/2 on the kitchen side the next thing will be a laminate top the will allow a couple of stools on the kitchen side and extend a few inches into the dining area for passing food through.
Zeeya
View ImageView Imagehere are a before & after of the wall
It is a small house, about 916 sq ftI can't imagine living in a house that small with enough folks to need 3 bedrooms. Unless we're talking a college slum lord rental. ;o)Kitchens sell houses. Make the kitchen bigger/nicer can only be a good thing.
My point of view- for whatever it's worth. I think the third bedroom is a good thing for resale, probably better than a dining room if all other things are equal. I have a bunch of rental properties and the 2 bedrooms are lots harder to move than the 3 bedrooms.
I wouldn't change things now unless I were making them better for me as the person living there. Too many people live in a house that they don't like because they are worried about resale somewhere down the road. That's not good. Make it your house. You can change it back later if you really need to. A wall in most situations is not a big thing to add or remove. (Do check it out first.)
Good luck.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
"I think the third bedroom is a good thing for resale"
I disagree. A home under 1,000 sqft with 3 bedrooms has rooms that are just too dang small and probably no closet space. When house shopping I wouldn't even look at a home with that bedroom to sqft ratio. But a 1,000 sqft home with 2 bedrooms sounds nicely proportioned and I would put it on the list for a looksee.
I missed the post where she said the house was 900 square feet. You are right that the bedrooms will be small and closets too. That makes it more of a judgement call in her particular situation.
But my experience has been that the third (bed)room is a big plus. I have four units open for rental right now. Three are 2 bedroom and the fourth is 3 bedroom. I've had probably 10 people look at the bigger one in the last month, nobody's interested in the smaller units. I've got another one where I designed it as a 2 bedroom with a study. Tenant is unhappy with the study idea and has her niece in there as a third bedroom.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
Thanks again everyone! I guess there is no "right" answer. We got the house at a good deal, so I guess we will do with it what will work for us, no matter what we will make $$$ when we sell... or maybe we will keep it for a rental. Who knows!?!? Someone had asked if there was a dining room and no, there is not. It is a pretty large living room, 2 bd rooms, 1 bath, 1 kitchen, 1 small utility room, and this misc. room. Small but perfect for single or maybe one child family. We have definitly decided to make the kitchen bigger!!!
Just a minute!!!
I'm not going to get into the original questin at all. Everyone else has covered it well.
But you say, "My financee and I," and "are going to remodel..."
Have you any idea of how much strain this can put on a relationship? My wife has threatened to leave me over three houses now. Marriage counslors get rich off this kind of stuff.
It's gonna cost you three times as much as you think you can afford, take 4 times as long, and test every ounce of trust, faith, and love of your relationship. But I guess it's better to do it now instead of adding the attorney's fees for the divorce on top of it.
(G)
Yes, MUCH better to 'test' the relationship now BEFORE the wedding. ;o)Marriages are always threesomes. Husband, wife, and the mortgage.
I think in this day and age with people having less kids and lots of double income, no kids couples, a small house with a nice kitchen may sell better than a three bedroom house. It could be a started home, or one for a couple after their kids have grown up and left home.
My area is mostly 3 bedrooms 1 baths, 1000 sq' or smaller on the water in Maryland. Several people have converted from 3 BRs to 2 assuming they are living in the house long-term, for whatever reason, they have tried to sell and the 2BRs sit for a long time or sell at a loss. There are currently 2 houses in my neighborhood that were converted to 2 BRs, both have been on the market since Summer 2006 because the sellers still expect a 3 BR price for them.
Buyers may only need 2 bedrooms, but the 3rd becomes the home office. The room next to your kitchen sounds perfect for that use.
Is the kitchen adjacent to a dining room? Could you make the kitchen/dining room into an eat-in kitchen or take space from the dining room? We did the latter, borrowing 4' from the dining room to make our "Master Bedroom" a luxurious 10'X14' (including the closet).
As one person mentioned, discuss it with a realtor. They will be able to analyze the market for house conversions like you plan and factor in remodeling cost. It may turn out to be a good idea . . . but it could also be a bad idea if it decreases your home's value or marketability.
Jason
Here the county will not let you build a two bedroom, they will not issue a permit for two bedroom. Its all about property tax.BOB is always right, ALL HAIL BOB