Tubs are pretty, but if you have one elsewhere in the house I believe you will be much happier in the long run with a big shower. I love my new big shower! It's so nice to have room to dry off. We installed a Solatube in our shower and we had never done that sort of thing before. It was very easy and it does not leak (my big fear). It looks a bit like a decapitated R2D2 on the roof from outside, so keep that in mind. It really brightens the room, even though we have a wall of windows in there already. You cannot see the sky through them, though. The lake view would be a must for me, whether it is in the bathroom or the bedroom. The bigger the windows the better! Obscured glass doors is a brilliant idea. Cutting through the slab and installing new pipes is not rocket science, it's just tedious hard work. If you hire a plumber to do any of the actual pipe work, be sure to check often that all pipes are INSIDE the walls and do not jut into the area where you will be attaching the drywall, and that the drains and toilet flanges are LEVEL. The screws for the toilet should be positioned correctly too. There are a lot of little measurements that can make your life miserable if not done correctly when the plumbing is roughed in. Good luck! Renee

Thanks, I checked the building code and I don't think it counts as a bedroom. The key concept in the code is that it needs to be enclosed, which would be easy enough to do if we had to, but then there are rules about close proximity to a bathroom and the only bathroom on the floor is the master bath and you have to go through the master bedroom to get to the master bath. I don't think that would fit the rules. I think it would be considered a bonus room or a den. I'm still debating about the appraisal. I can get a independent appraisal done for $200. The bank that currently holds our first mortgage charges $475 for the appraisal for a refinance. I don't want to pay that much to be told that the property hasn't rebounded enough. It may be worth it to me to pay $200 for an opinion on the current value.

Talk to a realtor in your area who can give you hard numbers. However, I would have to say that the project is only worth doing if you are able to incorporate that half bath into a master suite and add a shower or tub/shower. Depending on what type of footings were dug for the garage, your project may require demolition of the garage and new footings dug before you can use the space for living quarters. If the realtor gives you an idea of the numbers on this as far as any gain in value to the home, you will then need to contact your local permits office and find out what type of permits and inspections you will need to go through to do this. Do not even think of doing it without, as it creates a big nightmare for you to have unpermitted work at any eventual sale time. Plus, lots of neighbors just live to turn you in to the codes people. Then your third stop is a structural engineer to be able to assess the scope of construction needed for the project. As previously mentioned, the foundation will need assessing, as will the existing walls and roofing structure's ability to be insulated to current code without affecting the required head height. It could be a really simple project, or it might not be. After you have gathered all of the above information, then it's time to develop a written scope of the project with all of the specs for the products that you want to use and the structural requirements of the engineer. Then you use that document to seek bids from contractors so that everyone is bidding on the same project with the same products. For a mid range master, expect costs to come in somewhere between 120-140K if you have to rebuild from the foundation up. If your foundation and existing walls will work, then you can probably shave off one half to one third of that amount. If you DIY everything, then maybe one half to one third off again. So, between 30K and 140K depending on what the reports say and how handy you are.

Tell any contractor that you assume the cost of doubling the size of a project "won't be that much different," and you'll get a reality check. It greatly depends on the size of the original project. I expect that you'd agree that pushing it out one foot as opposed to two feet "won't be that much different". That's doubling. 6 feet vs 12 feet might be more of a difference, but with part of the addition being a bathroom, I figured that the fixed cost of all of the plumbing etc would be a greater factor than the variable cost of the additional square footage. I wouldn't think you'd be able to renovate an existing bathroom for the price that the first person quoted! It goes to show that prices vary so much depending on location. My main point was that he should consider going bigger and find out actual prices. Don't get locked into a certain mindset based on possibly false assumptions. Granted, I should have said might not be instead of won't be. There are too many unknowns in this situation to make any kind of absolute judgment.