Smallhouse: Thank you for the links to your friends new kitchen. I like it! And it is so helpful to see how some ideas have worked out in small space. TBB123: Our upstairs is not too-too convoluted, but we do have a room that was divided in half. Both rooms are useful, but one is a weird shape. If your son ever puts info on his house online, I'd be very curious to snoop into what they've done with it. (I haven't gotten the chance yet, but I will map my other two floors and post the diagrams to this thread.) Brewcat: Happy hunting for renovation ideas. I am going to order a copy of the book you mention. I have read a little bit on rowhouse history, since I live in one and am (barring a massive career shift) setting down roots here. But what I read was not super detailed. I bet the book would be very illuminating. Maybe I could even figure out when our house was built... I have a rough idea but its really rough. Thanks for your observations re: the real estate market. My broad impressions are in line with yours on Fed Hill and Canton. I am uncertain what is true in my own market (Hampden). The market is not, I think, nearly as robust; at least, the home values are not as high as Canton. There has been a noticable uptick in buying and selling since I got here (I bought during the housing crash), and all the sudden people are gutting properties and doing the total overhaul inside that tbb123 and 4kids mentioned. Will the trend continue? It seems very recent, almost like it started last summer. I'm not sure I trust it yet. It does make me feel optimistic about the wisdom of smaller projects, esp if they improve aesthetics. I did try to do a little survey of what was up for sale this spring. A lot of houses have 2 baths, and many of them - not even the totally overhauled homes - have those baths above or below first floor. A lot of people who could use a basement seem to have done so. But it's also not super hard to find places that do have the first floor bath. So if a buyer wants it, she will have a choice of houses, and some will offer it. My suspicion is that, in terms of the market especially, there is wisdom in holding onto the powder room. One reason a person might consider Hampden over some other areas is that you can get a little more space for your money, you may be able to get a little yard, and the prices for the not-totally-overhauled houses is still reasonable. My observation is that this has attracted a lot of couples with babies and toddlers. And that, as some have pointed out, makes the first floor bath an asset. Also, having looked over our house very hard this last weekend, I realize that it might be difficult to find (a lot) more bathroom space on the other floors. So if I have space for a powder room on floor 1, it might be a bad idea to erase it. One advantage of the daylight rowhouse layout is that even if we keep the back partially blocked by the powder room, we could invest in nice windows all along the wall that is not shared with neighbors. It is mostly closed off right now, but it is south-facing and very bright. I suspect it that more windows would really open up and brighten the space.

Thank you all again for the feedback. I'm really leaning towards sacrificing the laundry room and going with a powder room. The more I think about it and think about the way I do laundry, I believe the ROI (for me) on a separate powder room would be greater. I'm attaching a drawing, but I there really isn't much to work with. The area outlined it red is initially going to be a family room, but in a couple of years it will convert to an in-law-suite, so we want/need to keep that area separate the way it is (so ignore the bathroom there, that's part of the suite). The room labeled with the red L and blue B is the current laundry room, proposed change to powder room/mudroom. The alcove with the blue L is where I am thinking of moving the laundry, and the red X in the area to the far right is the location of the main floor bathroom in the existing house. And yes, we have walls, I just didn't draw them out! :-)

So much great advice (and no judgement - thank you!) — I wanted to update, we’ve confirmed it’s only shellac! Thankfully, and we’ll be working on removing as much as possible tomorrow, with heat off and windows open. Pics below, including my husband cleaning his mess lol. Great tips on the floor - you’re points are right on, and given the work the walls will be I’d like an easier alternative for the floors for sure. The left window is actually a door that a previous owner caulked shut, but we’re planning to open and make functional again. Otherwise there isn’t much room for anything, but it would be ideal to move the sink elsewhere to have more wiggle room in the “bathroom”. We did take a quick look today at more narrow utility sink/ vanity combos, and while not perfect should be an improvement. At this point it feels that is still quite far in the future, but hopeful the shellac removal is quicker than I anticipate. Once again THANK YOU, I have been so delighted to find such a knowledgeable (and patient) community!!!

The overall layout feels like we are wasting space. The architect gave us his best with this layout. He basically changed the shower to a linen closet and moved the door to the area to be centered versus more to the left as it is now. Another thing we are not aligned with. We don‘t have to add the new window as marked on the plans. Would I be better off removing all the details and asking for layout help with a blank rectangle? Current window stays in place. I‘d like to believe there is a better layout than what we have. Thank you.