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Renovation Advice - My house has no proper front entry!

5 years ago

I love my small house. It was built in the 1960s when life was different. I’ve been living in my house for 4 years now. I have no immediate plans to sell the house, but who knows what might happen in the future! One of the things my house lacks is a proper front entry. The front door opens right into my living room. No one ever uses the front door. I use the side door, which opens into my kitchen, for my shoes and hang my coat in the closet in the living room. It works for me as a single person living in the house but it becomes quite congested when I have guests over. I’m just worried that when it comes to sell my house in the future, a modern family will be turned off by the lack of storage space. One idea was to convert the breezeway between my house and garage into a mud room/foyer. An entrance will be created from the foyer into the house where my dining room is. The existing front porch will be turned into a sunroom/dining room. So basically this renovation requires windows, doors, new flooring, drywall, some electrical work, good insulation and a new roofline. I got a quote from one contractor and it was surprisingly high considering the small size and lack of foundation work required. I will be getting more quotes but I do wonder if this is even worth pursuing. Would a family with a modern lifestyle be willing to buy a house with no proper front entry? Thanks in advance!

Featured Answer

Denita

5 years ago

Please post pics here in the comment section. This way we can see what you see.

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Comments (7)

Denita
5 years ago
Thanks for the pics! You have a cute fur family there:)

Can you post a pic of the whole front of your home? It helps to see the area in context too.
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PRO
Skippack Tile & Stone
5 years ago
Is your home sized for a family? How many bedrooms, baths? that can affect who will be looking at your house when the time comes.
PRO
Skippack Tile & Stone
5 years ago
It's definitely worth doing. You will increase SF to home, and appeal to a larger base down the line; but, it will be expensive.
hli6 thanked Skippack Tile & Stone
PN _Bos
5 years ago
What an adorable home. personally, I think it's odd when people renovate for the next buyers -- when you're not even selling. Do you really want to spend $20K (total guestimate) to create an entryway you don't need? I'd let the next buyers worry about it. If it were me... i'd find a project that would bring me joy... upgrade the bathroom, install designer closets, splurge on a new oven if you love to cook, turn that backyard into a great space for entertaining. But thats just me :-)
hli6 thanked PN _Bos
hli6
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you for all the advice! I will keep them in mind :)
RaiKai
5 years ago
I used to live in a home where the front door opened right into the living room as well, and that was the only living room (no separate formal and casual spaces). I think that was a very common floor plan in the 1950s, 1960s as most of the houses around mine had similar. Never bothered me, but like you, limited people used that door anyway. It was a cute and comfortable house.

If you have no immediate plans to sell, then only renovate if you want to, and renovate for YOU. Do you want a mudroom/entryway space? Then sure, look at doing that. But maybe this space is better left as is, or maybe renovated in a different way (reading space, hangout space/playroom for your fuzzy overlords (I know how it works!)) that suits your own lifestyle.

While I expect many "modern families" do look for a mudroom space now when they are in the market to buy new, many "modern families" also go without due to other priorities: budget, location, character of house, etc. It also makes little sense to me to spend all that money renovating something that is not a must for you, when you also have no intent to sell. Something else will be the "must have" down the road anyway if you do sell, and your now-dated mudroom may not be as attractive.

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