But what do you plan to do about a living room?

We'll use the den. I don't need two living areas. The den is about 20x20, so more than I need there too.

I also forgot to mention that the ceiling in the little living room is vaulted, but the ceiling in the kitchen is 8'.

If you plan to move in two years, do nothing. You will not recover your remodeling expenses.

I agree about not getting your money back, but the problem I see is that your house doesn't have a real eating area now, just a small eating bar.

It depends on a lot of things - how old is your house, how large is it, and what is the general character of houses in your neighborhood? For example, if you live in a neighborhood of small homes built in the 40s, I'd guess that most of those houses have funky layouts and buyers go there for character, large trees, etc. and don't mind strange layouts. In that case, you probably don't need to change the layout for resale purposes. However, if you live in an area where houses are larger/newer/better layouts, it might be very hard to sell your house without the changes.

We have to do something because we have no dining room at all right now. Our dining table is in the den (since it is so big) and we either eat at the bar or carry our food into the den which is NOT convenient. Our choices are to remodel what we have or add on a separate dining area, which would be much more expensive.

We can reuse most of our cabinets, which I really like, and all of our appliances. Dh & a neighbor could do most the work, since they have both been sub-contractors, but there is going to have to be a big beam put in where the wall is taken out, and both of them have bad backs. So we are considering hiring someone for that & to make it go faster.

Our neighborhood is houses about 25 years old, all custom houses, and ours was one of the smallest at 1400 square feet. The garage converted den add 400. We have a lot of neighbors who have done major additions to their homes, and some homes just started out over 2000 sq ft. Our neighborhood is one of two streets past a addition of really nice houses, and our two streets end in cul-de-sacs. It is a pretty nice neighborhood and houses generally sell pretty fast, even in this market.

Could you remove the counter eating area in the kitchen and put a real dinning area back in there?

If you don't need the living room and can use the den as a formal living room, put your dining room in the current living room. Dining rooms with a fireplace are very charming. I agree I would not do any remodeling.

You might do as happyladi suggests & basically put the house back the way it was, in order to add a "real" dining area, but you could accomplish the same thing by extending the nook area, & that way you wouldn't lose any kitchen & cabinet space.

Re-modeling a home is very much like adding a pool:
you can count on losing money on it.

If this very cute house were mine, especially if I thought I might move within 2 years, I'd leave it alone.

(If I've been eating at the bar or in the den so far, I can keep doing that til I move, & the buyers can decide where they want to eat!)

A sweet group of ladies came over this morning & I got their opinion and some new ideas. It always helps to have objective people. I discussed their ideas with dh & he agreed with most and we came up with this new plan. Yes, we can do nothing, but that's really not an option. We still need a door to the backyard and to take out the north-facing door that is giving us such problems.

{{!gwi}}

As far as cost, there will be some expense, especially with this new plan (and I didn't add on a back porch which would be a necessity) with the cement & bay window set up, and the beams. Dh was in the construction business for years until he decided there was an easier way to make a living. lol So he has the know-how & the friends to do a simple job like this, and we've got a lot of the needed materials already.

p.s. Another reason dh & I like opening up the kitchen is to help air flow. The kitchen is farthest from the a/c and it would help to have more air circulation especially on days when I have all the ovens going.

A neighbor who works in construction came over tonight. He thought the plan would work except the door in the bay area. As far as will it look ok to see right into the kitchen from the front door, no opinion from him, and that is really what I want to know before I go any farther.

Dh agrees with everyone who said we do next to nothing if we are going to move in 2 years, just the bay & the doors. I just don't know. I wish I knew what the economy & his job were going to be like in 2 years. It would probably be smart to stay in this house & make it work, but I am itching to move farther out & build.

I use my living room.
I use my dining room.
So, if *I* were house-hunting, I would want both.

But... bottom line, since you want to move, I'd do nothing, as many others have suggested. Especially since you say: "It is a pretty nice neighborhood and houses generally sell pretty fast, even in this market. "

Good point western_pa_luann. Most houses in these two blocks don't have 2 living areas, or 2 dining areas for that matter. What they have are larger bedrooms.

What I mainly want to know is, what would a buyer think of the arrangement?

I should take to drink more often. I just figured out what you meant luann. The houses that sell quickly are the ones that have been updated and have a pleasing floorplan. There is one a few houses down that has been on the market awhile, and isn't selling for a variety of reasons, and I'm afraid one of them is because it has 2 kitchens side by side. Something the previous owners wanted, but odd for most people.

For families that keep kosher having two kitchens is very beneficial- I would certainly market it in that direction.

I'm in DFW. This is a starter home for sure - Dallasites sure do like their space, so 1400 square feet is small for the area. I'd do as close to nothing as humanly possible. It will be really hard to get your money back when prices are already so low...it's easy to overinvest.

Converted garages are not a big plus here, I'd really hesitate to make that your main living area. If you must do something to get an eating area, I'd try to get it back into the kitchen. I agree that having no eating area is problematic from a resale perspective.

I agree with Twit and would use the current formal living room as my dining room, even if that meant buying a smaller dining table. Buying new furniture would be cheaper and easier than remodeling, and seems to provide a reasonable temporary fix to the problem. Since multiple living and dining areas are not the norm in your market, that should work for resale, too. You probably would need to add a chandelier to the current formal living room, but that seems simpler than making any structural changes. Since there's already a door to the original patio, I would not add the bay & doors, either.

youngdeb, you are right about this being a starter home, or a downsized home. Seems like most of the new neighbors we've had in the last few years are retirement age. That's why I am so hesitant to do an addition.

That door facing north has to go though. It has been nothing but trouble for the last 13 years, and probably all the time before that.

I think the garage conversion was done well, but I know I'm biased. When we get the old driveway removed from in front of it, I don't think anyone would ever know.

After reading what you said about your neighborhood I'm wondering if you may have a teardown situation -- if your lot is large. What part of your property's value is in the land alone?

Our lot isn't worth much, and there are several small farms around us that were just sold to developers, so I doubt it would be worth it. I have wished a tornado would come along & just level this house so I could start over, but I'd probably be in the house when it happened, and then it wouldn't be my problem at all. lol

Two years goes by quicker than you think. If you have to move the north door, just put an exterior door in the current kitchen bar area on one side of the window by the patio. Then as others have said, put your dining set in the formal living room, and use den as living room.

Anyone who buys your home may have plans to remodel (since other homes are larger), and personally I would see little to no advantage over what you've drawn compared to what's there already since the floorplan looks workable. I think your best bet is in decorating it attractively using furniture that's scaled to the home's size. You'll enjoy using it more yourselves now with a conveniently located dining room and a larger living room. At least move the furniture that you have around and see if that doesn't change your perspective a little.

I think you could be right sujafr. We bought this intending to remodel immediately & most of our new neighbors have remodeled soon after buying too.