I'm in the Bay Area as well and had similar work done as part of a larger remodel. Off the kitchen I had a laundry room with a door to a small half bath (toilet + pedestal sink), and in the adjoining garage I had a furnace and water heater. I bumped the laundry room into the garage, taking up some of the concrete slab, replaced the furnace with a smaller one (added a 2nd furnace for the 2nd floor in the attic upstairs), removed the water heater and added a tankless heater outside. With the additional length gained by the laundry room in the garage, I was able to create a full bath from the half, adding a shower. Hope that all makes sense - I can post the before/after plans if that would help. Here are some numbers from my initial bid: Remove toilet 185.22 Remove 40 gallon water 185.22 Remove 6" basement slab w/pneumatic tool 350.28 Concrete sawing, slab, 447.36 Ceramic tile w/board in shower @$4/SF 80 SF 3,324.00 New water resistant sheetrock in shower 135.20 Ceramic tile floor w/board @ $4/SF 25 SF 876.25 Ceramic shower stall pan @ $4/SF 12 SF 405.00 Water heater was $1600 in materials, not sure about the labor. Vanity was $1000 and counter/sink was $1000. Wall-mounted faucet was around $150. Toilet was around $400 (wall-hung). Shower fixtures were around $200. I had the walls blocked for grab bars and added 2 of them. Window in the bath was around $150, new exterior door from laundry room was around $300. I don't have framing/drywall/insulation/electrical broken out for just the shower but those would need to be added in. Plus the cost of the plumber who ran all new copper pipes and the gas line to the tankless water heater. And other costs that were rolled into the bigger job. Permits required, obviously, which adds to the cost and time. You can do your own demolition and economize on the finish materials, but no doubt want to do a quality job on the framing, drywall, plumbing and tile work. Hope that helps.

Thanks for taking the time to answer and sorry I wasn't more clear! Here's the situation: This is new construction, and we have some leeway as to what we want. Currently, the plan has a 1/2 bath in the hallway and also a 5X5 closet in the master. There is another ~5X5 closet in the master too. On the plan, the 1/2 bath and one closet are back to back. So we are considering NOT putting in the 1/2 bath and instead using the space to enlarge that closet. Or we could keep both as is. People in the Houston area are used to HUGE master closets, and 1/2 baths, so either option is still a smart thing to do for resale. Here is a link that might be useful: This is the floor plan

Hehe, got a tidbit from someone looking over my shoulder while I was in this thread. She's a bit of a clothes horse.. She suggested a full closet gallery. Cut the bedroom down to 12x16 (you only sleep there anyway if all your closet is elsewhere), leaving the south wall open for a 4x16 shoes and shiney/jewlery section. Run the bathroom and closet long like I originally suggested with the even 8x18 division, closet also on the south end. Run the south end with lots of windows (frosted of course) for natural light with benches/storage under the windows for folded clothes, breaks/divisions between windows tall boys of storage for smalls like socks, ties, scarves, unmentionables, ect. The full run of the 18 feet along the bathroom wall being for hanging storage. With breaks for a couple dress dummies. All with bottom to top shades on the windows, with additional lighting worked in too. She wasn't sure how to work the bathroom.. I had to remind her it needed at least access from the bedroom to count as a master bath, lol. But I thought it an interesting off the wall addition to suggest here. I thought my own suggestion of two longs instead of two blocks a shake up. I do like the two blocks as is as well.

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.