Great layout with fewer bedrooms trumps obviously crowded layout with forced statistics. Buyers aren't dumb, and they don't want to use bedrooms as closets either.

Well sure, but if we need the extra bedroom for ourselves? And bathroom preferably. Right now the bedrooms are really quite oversized, and the dining room is a decent size to make into a bedroom. So which is better- 2 small bedrooms and one big one, or 3 bigger bedrooms but no dining room?

The house is 1100 square feet so its not huge but its not super small either, there ought to be space to carve out a room/bathroom.

Open the walls between the living area and dining area/ kitchen. Extend the new bedroom and bath under BR 1 straight down into the living space. That gives you a living room next to the dining and kitchen. But you have to consider whether having 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with a tiny living area and kitchen is worthwhile. Probably not for resale but maybe it works for you. Of course you haven’t indicated where the front door is.

Unless uyou are in a super-high COLA, like LA for instance, it's much cheaper to move than to do a major addition.

a 7 x12 bedroom is useless and I think if this is what you need for your life get a different house.A bedroom off a kitchen and a LR will always look like a DR made into a bedroom . The rooms are a nice size leave it be.If you truly want help you post to scale drawings. IMO you need to rethink before doing anything to this house.

I do think it would be easy to make the dining room into a bedroom. My suggestion is that you keep in mind that someone may want to convert it back. So open the small wall between kitchen and living room as a hallway to the kitchen. Enclose the dining room, but use French doors, so that, when you open them, the room is semin open to the living room. Don’t add a closet, use a wardrobe.

convert The laundry room to a half bath/laundry. No need to open it to the bedroom. In a house this small, you don’t need a dedicated master bath.

A 7' x 10' bedroom as stated is useless. A twin bed is 39" W x 76" L. So if you put the bed on the long wall, that leaves you only 45" of room. Talk about claustrophobic. If you put it on the 7' wall, that leaves you with only 44" in front of the bed.

Plus your second bedroom wouldn't be 10' x 12' if you need to add a closet. It will then become 8' x 12'.

If you go to sell, it will be a HUGE negative.

No you can't turn the dining room into a bedroom because that bast@rdizes the layout of the house and will be another HUGE negative when selling.

A 2/1 with a great layout like you have will trump a poorly laid out 3/2 every single day of the week.

Also what is the age of your home? Does it have any architectural features?

I don't know that you're going to be able to get an extra bed/bath in that footprint. You're really looking at an addition, IMO. Rule of thumb is that a bedroom should be at least 10 x 10. Chopping up this layout even more will not make this home more desirable. If you don't have the money to do the conversion, I'd leave it alone. Make this the nicest 2/1 you can, and let the next buyer add on to it.

Janelle, if it’s not too personal, why do you need the third bedroom? It might help with suggestions. Two kids? Four kids? MIL? Temporary? Permanent?

There may be other solutions.

I think by changing from a 2/1 to a 3/2 you’re also changing the target buyer. And a family looking to buy a 3/2 is going to be turned off by the idea of tiny bedrooms they can’t really fit a bed in, or the lack of closets, or the lack of actual dining space for their family.

If it’s for guests, its very doable.

Buy a pullout sofa for the dining room. A good quality one. less money than construction. Have a coffee table with storage for the pillows.

Add a desk to one wall and you can then add either the French doors, or even a curtain for privacy.

Adding a bed/bath doesn't always add value.

If you aren't changing the size of the house by having an addition for the third bedroom and second bath, then you probably won't see any additional value added. In fact, as mentioned above, you could very well have a reduced value based on the newly non-functional 3/2. Any buyer and/or appraiser would have to take into account the cost to restore it to a functional layout. Walking through a bedroom to get to a bedroom doesn't add value. Having a very small bedroom (7x10) would be a detriment in my market and possibly in your market.

I agree that the best way to add a bedroom/bath to this home is through a well thought-out addition. It would need to look natural as if it was an original part of the house rather than an after-thought.

Consider working with an architect. It's possible that an (actual) architect could come up with a functional floorplan within the current footprint.

I agree with auntthelma - if it is a room intended for guests, then just use the room functionally as a guest room/slash office. A very comfortable sleeper sofa and done.

Just because a room is called a dining room doesn't mean the best use is to have a large table in the middle. I grew up in an apartment and the dining room was used as the den/family room. There was a gate leg extendable table that was used when my mother hosted dinners around a "dining room" table. Very easy to use that space as an office.

Living in metropolitan areas, I've never had the luxury of a dedicated guest room where a guest had their own room. People sleep on sofas in the living room - or a kid is temporary sleeping in another room and the guest is sleeping in the kid's room. A separate guest room is a nice luxury but not everyone has a separate dedicated room.

The dining room as a bdrm would have a fatal flaw as one would have to walk through the LR to get to the bathroom so unlikely you would be able to increase value of home by having it as a "third" bedroom-- if you are serious then get an architect to design and help you price out flipping the kitchen and the DR so all three bedrooms are on one side - then make the new kitchen open to the great room. Given you have laundry behind the kitchen you may be able to add a bath in that area - edited to add you could steal space from the center bedroom for closet space in the adjoining wall

If you’re looking for major construction, move the whole kitchen to the dining room space and make the existing kitchen and laundry area a bedroom somehow.

can you go up?

Good idea Jenelle H.