Personally I wouldn't convert it back to a bedroom. If I was looking for a 4 bedroom home I would want a decent size space for a table to fit the family and friends.

Six of one, half dozen of the other.

its not just about the number of bedrooms... people who want more bedrooms often have larger families that want larger family rooms and kitchens and etc.

talk to a local realtor they might suggest you market your house as 3+ bedrooms; people who cant afford a 'perfect' 4 bedroom house could well be interested in converting yours.

Based on the layout, I would guess that the main load-bearing wall runs through the middle of the house, top to bottom in your picture. If that is the case, then you could probably remove the wall at the bottom of the kitchen and open it up where it faces the stairs. That may give you enough space to have a kitchen/dining area that is more open than the current floor plan, or take a little of the kitchen to get a bigger dining area near the stairs. If you can do that, I think it might be worthwhile to convert back to a 3 bedroom.

Where were the stairs located before they were moved? Also, is there only one bathroom on the main floor (not unusual in older houses), or is there also a master bath?

Bruce

Are you selling soon?

Is there still room for a dining set in the kitchen or was the dining area renovated out of it?

If the kitchen is well designed with adequate space for a dining table, I'd totally convert it back to a bedroom.

Generally speaking, most buyers lack vision and have no interest in home improvements when they are willing to pay top dollar for a home. Three bedrooms on the main and a bedroom (office) in the basement will instantly capture a broader range of buyers.

So where is the other BATHROOM? Nobody could possibly answer the question from the rough floor plan.

Without the actual floor plan of the whole mainfloor there is no way of knowing .My guess is the reason for the conversion was because there was no space for a DR and I personally think that is not a good spot for a bedroom. Is the basement a walk out or just aregular basement. Is there a bathroom in the basement for the other bedroom, and a proper egress window ? We need more ino before asvising IMO.

Bruce - The main stairs were in the kitchen. It was a galley style and the stairs ran to the middle of the basement originally. They took that space to make a larger kitchen and built the stairs in the original dining room.

There is a small 'en-suite' bathroom attached to the master bedroom. I didn't originally draw it on the rough sketch.

Benjesbride - I'm planning on selling in a few years. I was thinking of stealing some space from the kitchen to put a small table.

Jan Moyer - There are 2 bathrooms upstairs. A hallway guest bathroom and a small master 'en-suite' I didn't draw on the rough sketch. There is also a bathroom downstairs and I'm considering stealing space from the laundry room downstairs and adding a 4th. Sort of mirror the upstairs by making a in law suite with current basement bathroom made as an 'en-suite' and then a guest basement bathroom.

Patricia Colwell - The basement is a walkout and the bedroom does have an egress window. In fact there's another room, a Den that has a closet but doesn't have an egress window. I'm considering giving that one an egress which would bump the bedroom count up to 5.

The home is about 2,300 square feet.

I would not add a fourth bathroom.

I would definitely close up the “dining room” and start a new thread to discuss renovating the kitchen. Include a sketch with dimensions as well as photos. The most bang for your buck will be creating a nice eat-in kitchen.

As the real eastate market cools a bit, you’ll want to aim for mass appeal, including people who have small children and want their kids’ rooms on the main with theirs.

I wouldn't convert the DR back into a BR, leave it as is. But I would put in that egress window in the den in the basement to make it another BR. I wouldn't bother with a second bath in the basement though.

If I were in the market for a four bedroom house I would definitely want more living space than is left by getting rid of the DR.

Bruce,

The home is located in Alexandria West, part of the Lincolnia hills development. A few of my neighbors have that back addition you mentioned. I think practically for resale, those additions don't seem to be fetching much more than homes without them.

I've found that many of the older expansions were done relatively cheaply, and they don't age well. That limits how much they add to the house value. And doing it correctly now costs so much that its not cost effective unless you plan to live there a long time.

When I look at your house layout I don't see any living space problem if you close off that dining room and convert it back to a bedroom. However, my house only has 630 sq ft on the main floor, with 3 bedrooms and a bath upstairs. This is very typical for my neighborhood, and we can live with 630 sq ft for kitchen, dining room and living room. I think your main living space might be similar in size.

Bruce