relocate 3rd upstairs bedroom to basement for a master bath

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

Hello...so a slightly weird dilemma here. We are childless and live in an old home. it has 3 BR and 1 BA upstairs, no bath on the main, and 1 bath in the basement. We would love a master bath as the current upstairs bath is not an amazing set up...again, older houses, not to mention sharing when people visit.

all of our upstairs beds are nice sized, but an architect has proposed creating a master bath from the smallest of the 3 bedrooms. he would then adjust basement layout, add egress and hopefully make it nicer to create a 3rd guest bed down there. the pro there is that is becomes a sort of suite down there, albeit small, because you would walk through the bed room to get to that bath. its finished now but would get refinished in this renovation project as we are doing some other things with the media and laundry down there.

I would never remove a 3rd bed if I couldn't place it elsewhere and keep it legal as I know that's a resale issue. but in this case its just that we'd be moving it to a basement. we do plan to stay and its truly for us though so I am leaning toward doing it. one real estate agent thinks it would be a wash. and if we dig the basement to add head room and make it super nice it could even increase value quite a bit.

I will add, its rare in Denver to find a 3 bed on one floor in this size range (<2500 sqf). many of these older homes have 2 on the main and 1 or 2 in the basement. we are just a rare non bungalow where all the bed rooms are currently upstairs.

We are not exactly a "family neighborhood" though so the utility of trying to keep this a nice family house for resale may be non-existent in this day and age. Its a great hood but mostly retired or childless professionals as the homes just aren't that large enough on our block to accommodate today's families. I'm not sure we have a kid living on this entire block actually. Not to say it could never happen, but we bought it from the last family with children to vacate the block, because even with the 3 beds up it wasn't a great setup for them. I have also seen set ups in other homes we looked at in the past year that are similar...2/2's above ground and fetched some hefty prices...but those were mostly 2/2 up and then 1 on the main.

Which configuration would you prefer?

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Comments (5)

Suki Mom
2 years ago
Make your home work for you - do what your architect recommends - convert smallest bedroom to master bath and add a bedroom in the basement.
kandrewspa
2 years ago
Agree with Suki Mom. It sounds like you won't even take a hit on resale due to the demographics in your neighborhood. Be aware that recently another poster on this forum said he was quoted $40K to have his basement dug deeper - just 6". You may not be in the same area as he is, so your cost may vary, but this gives you an idea of the possible cost of this type of work. It may not be worth it. It's possible that the next buyer will just want a home office and be happy with whatever you do.
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Thank you to everyone for their ideas and comments. We are currently working with a designer with engineering experience. There will be another ensuite room downstairs which could function as a 2nd master for resale concerns. @new-beginning - You got the idea for why I don't want all three kids upstairs - thank you! When my sons are in HS, my daughter (and her friends) will be 4-11. My boys are VERY respectful, but I think we all know how *some* boys talk and what they talk about in HS. My boys WILL have friends over and if they're all upstairs having a sleepover or just hanging out, watching a movie or whatever, I really don't want my daughter (and her friends) hearing conversations, etc. that are not age-appropriate for her/them. @Beth H and bossyvossy - I am most definitely NOT letting my kids decide anything about this house! They actually don't want to leave our current house at all :) They won't have any say on anything in their room or the house set up or anything! This is all for how we believe the flow will work best for our family. @chocolatesnap - You may be right, but right now, we cherish our time after the kids go to sleep. That's the only time we have to watch a movie together or enjoy a glass of wine or whatever. I am sure that we would still be able to isolate ourselves on the same floor with the kids though. Thanks again, everyone. I think while the upstairs retreat still sounds amazing to me...the costs involved with adding a second floor probably outweigh the benefits.
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Thanks for the feedback. I have spoken to a handful of agent friends who work in the area - there really is no consensus. Some are more old school and think number of bedrooms trumps all, while others are more in line with my thinking that my target buyer is the newlywed or newborn crowd. I could *technically* still list the house as four bedrooms as that basement bonus room has a closet and is adjacent to a bathroom. I also thought about just converting that into a master suite, but I think that adds a ton of livable space as a second living room for a relatively small house and 5 bedrooms would be overkill. The whole thing has raised another question - is having a large master with a big bathroom/closet going to be important to my target buyer? Sure, it would be nice, but there are two bathrooms upstairs right next to each other and I don’t see it being much of an inconvenience for a married couple.
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Helen
2 years ago
If it works for you in terms of how you want your house to function and you can afford it, go for it.

Even if you are considering the mythical future buyer, there are many people who only need two bedrooms upstairs if that and would prefer a luxurious master bedroom with ensuite.

There are also people who would prefer this configuration for whatever reason - they work from home or they have kids who would love having their bedroom in the basement. My brother had his own bedroom in the basement in high school. Guests also are more comfortable when they don't feel on top of their hosts
PJ
Original Author
2 years ago
It’s funny because when I my best friend visited with my god children a few years ago he put the small one to bed in the basement because he said if she wakes up and hears us she will not go back to bed and it will be a long night so she does better far away from us. So certainly needs vary even with kiddos.

I know digging is definately an expense. Therein lies the problem…the ceiling is only about 74 inches. It’s certainly fine for sub 6 foot folks… the egress window will probably help the overall feel of the room A lot but the room won’t be very big.… just big enough for a queen and small dresser. I could see it being claustrophobic for more than an occasional use guest but I have seen kids rooms of similar size. If we do it will likely put a day bed. if I was a teenager I would 100% take a small basement room with en-suite over a larger bedroom upstairs.

In my case this room would likely be where mom stays since it would be near the media room and she likes her privacy.
PJ
Original Author
2 years ago
So I got to looking at the plans this weekend and had a eureka moment. The bedroom upstairs where he wanted to put the master is the nicer of the 2 guest rooms and I hated to lose it. The other guest room is large and odd shaped with part of it under a slanted roof line. I realized we could work a bathroom in the space between, square it off and make the shower in the slanted area. So it will make maintain 3 rd upstairs bedroom, it’ll just be small. But that’s normal for 1920s in Denver. I’d rather have a small 3rd bedroom upstairs for resale than none. We will use as an office but will be plenty big for a twin or full/kids room. We will still put that 4th semi conforming bed in the basement, and that’ll make us a 4/3 instead of 3/2….which puts us in a much better return on investment situation. Amazing that we can do that but we had a lot of dead/wonky space, and this plan will maximize every square foot.

relocate 3rd upstairs bedroom to basement for a master bath

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relocate 3rd upstairs bedroom to basement for a master bath

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Suki Mom

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