If your kitchen is okay for now, I'd say to get as much space as you can for your bathroom now. This is a job you'll only do once (hopefully!), so make it the bathroom you'll really love. Then, after a few years of saving up, re-do the kitchen if you want. From your description, it doesn't sound like the projects are mutually exclusive. Rather than doing both and compromising, I'd go for the gusto with your bathroom project now, and do the kitchen down the line when your appliances aren't as new. (Unless you think the money makes it it now-or-never to update your kitchen.)

We did our kitchen five years ago, knocking out the back of the house to add on to get the larger kitchen we always wanted. That drained the coffers for awhile, so it took until this year, with tiles literally falling off the walls, for us to tackle our guest and master bathrooms upstairs. We ended up adding on above our garage for a new walk-in closet room, which allowed us to double the size of our tiny master bath. Had we tried to do all these projects at once, we would have had to compromise on the expansions and the features and finishes, and we wouldn't now have all these rooms we now love. I realize that budget may dictate you've got only one shot to do renovations, but for us, doing it in stages has worked out great.

-- Eric

I think I would factor a few things into deciding
- If you opted not to do your kitchen now and added 540 sq ft with the master bathroom, would you be able to either add on to the kitchen, or do this renovation with the laundry room moved to the garage later?
- What is typical in your area as far as master bathrooms and kitchens? Is a tub in the masterbathroom standard? Is your kitchen now somehow not as well laid out as the dream kitchens in your area?

I think no matter what you do, you want to make sure you are making the best use of the space. I've been amazed how the right layout like moving an entrance, having a pocket door, adding a built-in to go below a low window, adding vertical cabinets as part of the vanity for a bathroom that didn't have much storage, has made all the difference in my enjoyment of the space.

I redid my kitchen in '97 but kept the same footprint. Its not huge but OK and in today's market I think some of the oversized kitchens are overkill. We just are finishing a master bedroom/bath renovation. Our bathroom was tiny so we reconfigured it from closet space along with the original. We knocked out back to create some more space in the bedroom and also to add space for another closet since one was being taken for the bathroom. I am very happy with this choice.

It sounds to me like you prefer your original plan. I agree that adding square footage will be a huge plus for resale, providing you also intend to update the kitchen before you sell. We just had our house reappraised and the fact that we added a bedroom and some additional living space square footage added a HUGE amount of value (much more than the brand new kitchen we also had just completed.) It sounds like you would prefer to have your better master suite and convenient laundry... so I say go with Plan A!

thanks to all who have posted so far, especially Eric. We can probably save/budget down the road for a kitchen redo, or do part of it ourselves. Additions would be a little harder for us except finish work (floors, tile, etc. Can do drywall even but would need to find time to do it).

What that kitchen has is a U shaped layout, not too bad except there are overhanging cabinets between a small dining/family space and the kitchen. It's a counter/pass through kind of setup where someone can sit at stools and talk with the person in the kitchen....except the cabinets hang down so the person in the kitchen has to look under them. We would likely tear those out and relocate the stovetop to the perimeter wall and make that pass through an island. Then that entire space could become kitchen/dining.

It is possible we could still move out a wall on that (kitchen) side of the house down the road too, we are in Hawaii so all the construction costs are much, much higher than mainland. So jealous of all the posters here who can put on a large extension for less than 50K. Plan A or Plan B will cost us about the same.

We don't plan to sell and move anytime soon, but should we need to we're leaning toward sq. footage instead of just extending current bath and upgrading the kitchen. Our neighborhood is about 20 years old so people are beginning to redo those rooms as the fixtures and appliances are ageing. We redid all the appliances about three years ago with stainless finishes, new faucet/sink, and redid the countertop Corian, so the kitchen is livable - just need to clear out some clutter and make smarter usage on available storage space. We could paint or restain the cabinet doors to freshen it up. A few neighbors are creating the "big bang" kitchen now but I'm not certain a 70K upgrade will improve the value that much as a new neighborhood is planned about 5 miles away within the next couple of years.

Would we love to live in a "WOW" kitchen, of course. But as with most people we have to make a decision on where it is best to spend the money for now.

We could feasibly also add on a 2nd story in future years, but we prefer the single story and if we age-in-place as planned, the new bath will include wide accesses and no-curb shower.