We own the home outright, and the avail homes in our town would all need major renos. At least with our home we know that the plumbing.wiring is all new, new windows, roof, etc. My husband will be doing all the work as well.

I just added a masterbath by building above an existing sunroom, the total project which included adding plumbing to a side of the house that had none, redoing drive and walkway where new sewer connected with old, roofing whole house to match new addition, permits, labor and finishes was close to 650 per square ft. If we subtract the extension cost, 20k for the new structure, it would still have been 450 per square ft to reconfigure the existing rooms to fit a bath not stacked to an existing one and 400 per sq ft if we abutted the hall bath . It is cheaper per square ft to build new than to renovate. We will not recoup a lot of what we spent but we hope to not have to move and we priced all options out before starting.

We did search high and low for another house that had what we needed in the location we adore and could not find anything we liked as much with my n our budget but it t would have been a smarter economic move to have sold than to add what we needed. I am certain now that it is done my dream home will pop up in my location and I will lose money and move :(. So Before you do anything, I suggest you look at your local real estate to see if it makes more sense to relocate.

edited to add, posted at the same time as you. We too own our house outright, which did factor into why we went with the worst economic choice too. We hired this project out for the most part, we did painting, built our vanity, storage wardrobes and bench so my numbers do not include the cost of cabinetry at all.

Can you show a scale drawing of what you've got? Maybe there are other arrangements someone can propose. For resale, a bathroom upstairs is kind of a big deal (not to mention you need it!).

Option #1, where the new bath is above the downstairs bath, sounds like the easiest, and would be the cheapest, also the closet would be nice. IMO - a 9x10 room is not very functional - so getting rid of it doesn't seem like a loss.

The trickiest part of plumbing is the venting, I had a plumber help me with that.

I don't think it will add any value to the home.

Eliminating a bedroom will surely detract value from the home, more so than the value added by having the extra bathroom. What's a "Hollywood" bathroom? Is that another term for Jack'n'Jill? I think that option makes the most sense - Is the boys current room large enough for you to build a new closet there instead of a standalone wardrobe?

A bedroom needs a closet to count so in effect you are only losing an office that has been used as a bedroom....

Any option to add a bedroom in an attic space?

@freeoscar: "Eliminating a bedroom will surely detract value from the home, "

At 9 x 10 room is hardly a bedroom. It's a 'junk' room.

Does the home have a basement? Could you finish it, with bedrooms for the boys and a bath?

thanks all for the input!! No attic space, and no basement. Also, not an option to add on. What's funny is my girls fought for the tiny bedroom. This house is 90yrs old, and was a gut job. My husband rebuilt it almost completely, but at the time we had a limited budget to do all the work. I have really kept an eagle eye on the homes for sale in our area, and nothing fits our needs, and would require way too much reno, on top of taking on a mortgage, and that's not realistic. I like being debt free!!! We love our small house, despite the challenges it presents. I am pretty minimalist, so it works. We could steal half of the closet from the adjacent room if we went with the closet idea. My girls are NOT thrilled with the idea of sharing a bedroom again. Plus the room is only 11x11, I think. Looking more and more like the kids may have to suck it up and bathe downstairs. lol

And as far as closets go- technically this house has 2 total! Did I mention no garage either??

With the size of the bedrooms, no garage, and only 2 closets, it sounds like a starter home. To me it makes no sense to improve the home, and I don't see how 6 people are going to be comfortable living there.

Vanessa, I believe you are leaving out major info: what state?, foundation size of home, value of home. Then you say there are no other suitable homes in town - really? - that's hard to believe.

Option 1 makes the most sense to me-you're getting 2 full baths, upstairs and downstairs. The most comfortable combo to have.

As for the girls being in one room, I might be not objective, based on my experiences-I think as long as kids go along with their brothers/sisters well, it's actually quite a great experience, to share the room. More challenging if the age gap is too big.

I vote option 1, as that would give you two full baths. Sharing a room is not the end of the world! They might even like it. But it is what it is.

I grew up in a 1500 sq ft home, 7 children, 3bd/1.5 ba and we all survived. You learn to live with what you have.

Judging by the title of this thread, I thought this was a misplaced presidential election discussion.

Joe: There is a reason for this - we are in a crisis - google the 'Fourth Turning".

You have an older home which has been extensively updated in a community with a shortage of suitable homes. So, I would not spend too much time worrying about the future market value of changes you will make to the home. When quality housing is in short supply, buyers will accept less than ideal layouts just to find something updated with decent construction

Our bathroom is between the master bedroom and the hallway, with a door each side. Occasionally someone will forget to unlock the bedroom door and I have to wake up enough to go through the room, down the hallway and around the corner...not a happy mama at that point! I could see children being deliberately obnoxious to a sibling and "forgetting" to unlock the door to a shared bathroom

My choice would probably be add a full bathroom en-suite to the main floor bedroom. That would increase the desirability of your house as a main floor bedroom and bath is a positive for people looking at aging in place.

I would not eliminate bedroom 4 for a bathroom. Technically it is not a bedroom because it has no closet. Find a spot in that rm to build a closet, even a small one is better than none at all.

It sounds very much less than ideal. I have no problem with children sharing rooms but those rooms are tiny for two children as they grow into teens.

I understand the idea of being debt free, but money right now is very cheap in terms of mortgages. They will never be as low as they are now and when rates start to go up, you'll actually be at an advantage having a low cost mortgage and a house that better suits you. Something to think about.

You told the ages of the kids but not who is what age. If the 10 year old is a girl and is going to be forced to share with a 3 year old, then NO! You will have WWIII on your hands in 2 years!

Look at adding a small two story addition that contains a bath for upstairs and some type of storage downstairs. You need both. And perhaps it is the girls who should be sharing the larger upstairs master than the boys.

Well, for what it's worth, both my kids shared rooms in college that were smaller than 11x11.

If you stay debt free, you can keep your savings rate much higher, to help put the kids through college and have a much more comfortable retirement. Being debt free with a big emergency fund is also a huge help in case you are laid off. I would consider a heloc as an additional backup.

Alternatively, If you have a 401k, some plans will let you borrow from that, up to $50,000-- and then you pay it back to yourself, at an interest rate specified in the plan. If you use cash or short term bonds that aren't earning a good rate, you might make more money this way. Don't take the money out by selling stocks or longer term bonds, as they are higher earners, and this lowers your total return for the long run.

I would definitely measure the whole house and post the plans, you'd be surprised how possibilities open up once you draw the plan, and people here will give lots of input.

We now have fools contributing to many threads. This forum has really gone down hill since it merged with houzz. They will probably delete this post.

I am sure for many families in this day and age anything less than 2000+sf is crazy, but for us, I make it work. My girls are 8 and 10, and the boys are 5 and 3, so pretty ideal for room share. Currently we are a one income family so a mortgage really isn't ideal. Most of the homes for sale here, are old, in need of cosmetic overhaul AND more than likely updates of electrical, plumbing etc. Plus, not a lot of homes that are bigger than ours, in a neighborhood I'd live in.

Well, I've moved the girls together, and I think we will be converting the smallest bdrm into a teen bathroom. Then we decided to flop the laundry and the main bath. The Laundry will have a 1/2 bath as well, and the new full bath will become almost an en suite. The remaining two bdrms upstairs will have decent closets, and the current half bath will become a small linen/overflow closet for the upper level.

thanks again for the input.