Here's another option on the second floor: instead of putting a bathroom in the family room, create a hallway on the "bottom side" of the bedroom that you have to walk through to get to the family room. Then, on the "top side" of that bedroom, put a bathroom. That solves the problem of having to walk through that room to get to the family room.

Personally, though, I'd do the ground floor option of the office-turned-into-a-bedroom-and-new-bathroom.

By the way, is there any way to reconfigure the existing half-bath downstairs? It seems reealllyy public, and the toilet is almost in view of anyone standing in the front door.

How do you see this full bathroom being utilized? Your two options have very different end results. Do you need another bath or are you doing this because the other homes in the area have 3 full baths?

Thanks for the comments everyone.

@littlbug: while putting a hallway to the playroom space over the garage would be great, we're not enamored with sacrificing an upstairs bedroom to obtain it. RE: downstairs bath, it's not as public as the plan makes it appear.

@Denita: appreciate comments re: appraisal. This area has quite a few homes with similar layouts built in the 80s, so unsure how much it actually affects pricing. We considered changing closet layouts to create a hallway to the playroom, but in speaking with a contractor the pricing would be astronomical due to flooring and framing concerns. Also, the resulting bedroom would be 12' x 10'. Not a horrible size room by any stretch, but tighter than the current 12'x12'. Complicating things is that the playroom is over the garage, so rooflines are different between the bedrooms and the playroom, further limiting some options such as the closet you suggest.

@richfield95: We see the bathroom utilized for 1) children/friends not having to share current small jack-n-jill and 2) guests staying with us (few times a year). As with any costly remodel, resale also a component so having 3.5 baths instead of 2.5 is a factor.

your floorplan is currently broken, by having the large bonus room accessible only from a bedroom. if you are going to throw money at your house, fix that. if you make the bonus room into a bedroom and bathroom, you can abandon the current bedroom (remove walls, make it an open reading area, something, ) still have 4 bedrooms, up your bath count, and no longer have the awkward family room through a bedroom.

i dont care for first floor guest suites as i dont have guests that come and stay for months. someone who does can still do that work on the first floor.

You may get 60% of the 50K expense back, but not unless you fix the rest of the home flow issues. Adding another I’ll placed bathroom when you already have so many flow issues isn’t goung to really make the house more marketable.

http://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2018/

Do you want an en-suite or a bath accessible to everyone?

@ninigret

Thanks again for the comments. Appreciate the input.

@ninigret: We agree that passing through a bedroom to a playroom is not ideal/poor flow and have considered changing this. See the proposed plan above for a quick mock-up. As noted previously, issues with this proposed plan are a long interior hallway (dark) and a small bedroom). Because the playroom is over a garage there are roof-line differences that limit options, making this the best layout with our limitations: 1) not losing a bedroom upstairs, and 2) not sacrificing the upstairs playroom. Unless we place an en-suite at the far left of the upstairs family room, there's no other way to create a bedroom and keep a workable playroom.

@Sophie Wheeler: Please see response to ninigret re: flow issues upstairs. We'd be interested in knowing what other flow issues you see in this colonial plan from the 80s. If the issue is a non-open floorplan so common these days, below is a proposed 1st floor layout when we remodel the kitchen/laundry in a few years.

@richfield95: As 95% of the use will be one of our children, access to everyone is superior, favoring an upstairs bath that doesn't require a downstairs trek with clothing, etc. The proposed plan above creating a hallway, accessible bath upstairs, en-suite and fixing flow issues solves all of our problems, but leaves us without a downstairs en-suite. Given our limited guests, might be the best option.

I think it makes the downstairs bedroom uncomfortably small to take part of it to a bathroom. I do like Littlebugs suggestion of a hallway in the bedroom next to the bonus room, and a bathroom out of the rest of that bedroom. You really wont be losing a bedroom, since the bonus room would become a new bedroom. The bonus room is not really a selling feature right now, because of not having a central access point. A bedroom there, with a hallway to get to it, and a bathroom close to it, would be a real selling point, and for me personally, would be a much better option. If you need another bedroom, too, then move the office to the upstairs bonus room, after putting in the hallway and bath, and make the office into a first floor bedroom, for guests, that have problems with stairs etc. The bonus room, like it is, isnt practical, or really usable.

The way you have the hall added to that upstairs bedroom gives you a “becroom” without a closet. Also, I’m not sure how you’re adding a hall but only de reason the room from 12’4” to 10’, that’s only a 2 ft wide hall?

@cat_ky: Appreciate thoughts regarding final size of downstairs room with bathroom, which would be on the small side. Because our family utilizes the 29'x16' playroom on a daily basis, sacrificing it to create a huge bedroom makes little sense for our family. Additionally, our market requires a playroom.

@richfield95: A closet was added on the right side of the room near the entrance, which is taken from an existing closet in the master bathroom. The hallway is created by taking some space from the existing bedroom and space from the existing walk-in closets. Instead of those closets being 5' deep, they would be 3' deep. Hallway is 42-45" in width.

Thanks again for input.

Here is the way to add the bathroom that littlebug suggested and keep a bedroom upstairs. This is much better use of the space and solves the problem of the bonus room being a negative space. Yes the family room is a bit smaller but it's still a nice sized space and the bedroom now gets two windows. No more walking through a bedroom to get to the other space and in reality since the plumbing is right next to the master bath, it will be a lot cheaper to run plumbing lines.

@cpartist: Thanks for the image. We've previously discussed doing something similar but with an attached bathroom to effectively create a garage apartment. Unfortunately, the windows shown on the back wall are actually only skylights. If we close off the double-mulled window at the left side of the existing playroom to create a bedroom, that leaves 1 skylight for the playroom and hallway. Even with adding another skylight the areas will be dark. Also not sure about creating that bedroom without direct access to a bathroom, which forces guest/children to walk through a playroom to utilize it.

The more we look at this and consider everyone's comments, the more we think our hallway plan above addresses the most needs for our family. If we, or some future buyer, needs a downstairs en-suite then that could be added without difficulty. Thoughts?

The more I think about this, the more it seems apparent to me that your "walking thru a bedroom to get to the playroom" problem is much worse than your "only 2.5 bathrooms" problem. So I think it's imperative that you solve that one first. If you can solve it - and add another bathroom during the process - you're twice better off.

^Exactly. The weird family room setup is a distinct drawback that can not be overcome by the addition of another bathroom. I can’t believe that you don’t view that as the much bigger issue. Because it is.

Agree with little bug and Sophie.

And you can add solar tubes to the family room to add more light into the room. In fact they add a lot more light so that isn't a good reason not to do what I suggested.

This is why we enjoy the site so much, because it brings us back full circle to things we've considered in the past but discounted due to our needs. We only have 2 children and few guests, so having the children pass through a seldom-used guest room to an oft-used playroom was not an issue when purchasing. However, we do think a second full bathroom for when the kids are older would be worth the money. The choice comes down to upstairs (with or without hallway creation) or downstairs (creation of downstairs guest suite that seems so popular in modern houseplans). Cost of reno is also a driver, with hallway creation much higher than simply adding a bath downstairs where an existing sink resides.

Again, thanks everyone for the thoughtful comments.

@cpartist: The issue with your suggestion wasn't so much the light, as we know sonotubes are an option. The floating hallway bathroom and passing through the playroom to a bedroom without a connected bathroom (privacy) was more the issue. Especially if by creating a hallway we create an en-suite, fix flow issues and keep a large playroom that someone with a huge family in the future could change to fit specific needs.

Unfortunately having a pass through bedroom is really not solving the problem. It's still an odd layout and will be a negative when selling.

For what it's worth, here's my idea:

It looks as thought the family room is over the garage, which may be an 'easier' place to add a bathroom on the second floor.

The location of the bedroom doors in this plan is just a guess, the actual locations would need to consider utilities inside the walls.

@richfield95: Would certainly be easier to add a bathroom in our proposed position as the laundry/mudroom lies underneath with plumbing directly available. To your suggested drawing, we cannot completely take out those closets because there is a chase. Also, slanted roofline limits how far we push the hallway, unless we create a straight hallway with a doorway like this into the playroom. (https://www.houzz.com/photos/coastal-holiday-home-beach-style-bedroom-phvw-vp~15941407)