Would you rather have closets or floor space?

16 years ago

We just bought a bungalow to "flip" that has three small bedrooms on the main floor. All three bedrooms are around 10x11 but each has a whole wall of closet (2x10). We could make one room a "master" by re-configuring the closets. The master could take over the closets from the adjacent bedroom gaining around 20 sq ft of floor space while keeping a wall of closet. The other two bedrooms would remain the same size but would only have half a wall of closets each. This is a lot of labour to re-configure everything and, in the end, we're wondering if it would be worthwhile. What do you think? Is 20 sq ft extra worth the trouble?

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Comments (5)

skylyn
16 years ago
We're doing something similar in our small(ish) cape cod. However, the extra square footage is going to living space (i.e., living room/kitchen).

We're removing two closets and let me tell you, the mess, and work involved is pretty hefty. I needed to patch in harwoods to match existing flooring, patch ceilings and walls to match the other rooms, reroute wiring, etc (also, one of the closets was actually structural!). Not pretty.

On a flip, it would depend on the market for that particular house and neighborhood.. Unless every house on the block had a master as large, I'd say heck no! The idea behind a flip is to get in and get out, opening walls always leads to trouble!
lyfia
16 years ago
I think it depends on the size of the house. Having a master would be more of a plus I think and having a 5' closet in secondary bedrooms isn't a bad thing if it is a smaller house.
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sue36
16 years ago
Would the new master have a private bathroom? If not, in some areas it is not considered a master and that may impact any value all this work will add.

I think making that one bedroom bigger and making the other two closets 2x5 is a good idea (IMO) IF it helps the layout of the master. Adding 2x10 is not that much, but in some cases it might make the difference in whether the room can handle a king bed, for example. Sorry if this doesn't help, but I guess my answer depends on a number of factors - the new layout, storage availability elsewhere in the house and garage, what houses in the neighborhood are like. If you can't do this work yourself it won't be cheap. Framing, drywall, new closet systems, painting.
probookie
16 years ago
You don't say how many bathrooms the house has, but off the top of my head it would seem a better bet to leave one bedroom entirely alone and combine the other 2 into a larger bedroom with bath. I wouldn't rip out walls for anything less.
marys1000
16 years ago
Not enough information. A "bungalow" with 3 bedrooms on the main floor. Are all the bedrooms on the first floor? What's on the second floor? Is there a dry, non musty basement for storing the stuff you can't fit in the smaller closets?
What's the market? Most parents with small kids prefer to sleep on the same floor. Parents with teenagers sometimes don't mind separate floors as much.
In the current credit climate I would do what you can to keep the price low to sell. If you change too much and try to get your money back, would you be limiting your pool of buyers?

Would you rather have closets or floor space?

Comments (5)

skylyn

lyfia

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