SFGate

RDV anyone?

Dytecture Extending the house would provide a good return. Be careful of creating a "tunnel effect" in the entry with the way you have drawn it.

I would place the Master Bedroom at the back of the house if possible. Also the kitchen looks a bit small and awkward in the plan.

astraea Is your drawing to scale? The rooms look rather long & narrow, especially the MBR.

Lizabeth Ok your addition is costing about $375 per sq foot. Kitchens and bathrooms sell houses. I would like to see some of your dollars go to correcting a tiny kitchen. You may end up with an out of scale master compared to scale of the rent of the house.

What is the house worth today as it stands? How much value do you think this would add.? Ask a local Realtor or two what they think.. Sometimes starter homes should stay starters and not attempt to be more. When the market comes back it starts at the bottom with first time buyers.

I doubt you will get money back unless you can do the work yourself skillfully.. Your contractor and your lender will make money on you.

RDV @astraea - I think the rooms are not properly scaled. I just drew them as I remember. I dont think they are that narrow as I depicted in the picture.

RDV @DytectureThanks! The "tunnel effect" & master bedroom in the front is definitely my worry as well. But the home is built kind of in the back of the lot.. so there is a lot of space in the front rather than in the backyard.

K.O.H. Construction Corporation Dytecture is correct., bring in the left side about 6'

RDV You mean move the main door 6' to the front?

Twisted Minds Custom Designs If the sketch is near scale I would move hallway that accesses the bedrooms back to the wall that separates master and upper right bedroom, and use the space to enlarge both bathrooms, hope this makes sense, you lose alot of space with floorplan as is in the two other bedrooms that could be used for baths without making addition to home. In essence you give up some s.f. in bedrooms to gain in bathrooms.

RDV Thanks @TwistedMindsCustomsDesign very interesting idea. I hadn't thought about it.

eagledzines Checking with a realtor is a top notch idea. If the other homes in the neighborhood are much less expensive than what you propose for your own home, you will have a harder time getting your money back even if the adjustments you make are sound.

RDV Here is what I am thinking the updated one would look ..

Twisted Minds Custom Designs Very close to what I was proposing, glad my thoughts conveyed through to you.

S. Thomas Kutch i think I would knock out a 4'x4' square at the corner of the proposed bathroom addition to keep the entry way from taking on a tunnel effect......creating a step back to the front. Would give some possibilities for some interesting design to the front exterior and the bathroom could would have an interesting shape as well......just my 2 cents...... of which I can gladly make change.

RDV Thomas.. that's a good idea. My feeling is 4x4 will take away some space from bathrooms. My current thinking to move the front-door upfront to remove funnel effect a bit. So wont be tunnel effect on the outside although there will still be passage inside the home.

S. Thomas Kutch Tunnel effects are bad.....whether they are outside or inside. I think I would be more inclined to step back the entry and maybe steal some space from the closet area....you could make up for this by bumping the closet out some.

RDV Thanks for the response. I will take that into account & see how I can fix that... may be like you said.. steal some space from closet.

eagledzines Still need closets in bedrooms.

nononanna Dont forget that you're in San Mateo, and that there are hundreds of houses like this - you want yours to be nice, but not $75K nicer than any other. I guess you could say that you plan to live in it for 30 years so you're not worried about resale, but in general you want to be the cheapest house in the nice neighborhood, not the nicest house in the neighborhood.

That said, everyone south of SF is trying to find a way to make these darling little houses equally darling but somehow bigger...

Can you tell I miss northern California?

K.O.H. Construction Corporation In response to RDV. No, the main door needs to stay put. Don't bring the left side of the addition so close to the entry.

The Virtual Designer- Kitchens & Bathrooms Hello- Attached is a floorplan. Relocate the door into the garage to the side and free up space in kitchen area. You could place a weather awning over the front door so that you remain dry at least getting from the car to your house.
My plan is not perfect but have made the bedrooms smaller and squeezed in 2 bathrooms but requires no adding on to your house as such.
Spend your money on bathrooms, perhaps a new kitchen and opening up the house to say a BBQ area accessible via new bi-fold glass doors.
Hope this is helpful.

Artisan Builders & Consultants Looking for a quick turn-around, it doesn't make sense to add a lot unless you're doing the work yourself. But if the plan is to live there 5 years or more, the value is certainly there by improving the space and enjoying it in the meantime.

RDV @virtualDesigner - thanks for that floor plan. It's very interesting, we hadn't thought of moving garage door at all. I think it will help make the kitchen really contemporary.

@Artisanbuilders&Cultants - No. We plan to live here at least for 5-6 years. Our current apt's bathrooms are very large and so making us cringe to use a tiny bathroom :)

RDV @nononanna Exactly we dont want to over do it. This area is not premium location, but there are houses in the neighborhood that are 100-200k higher and 100-200k cheaper than our house. It is very hard to know if we are overspending it or not.

Linda Staying in the home is usually better financially than selling up and moving to another house. You mention planning to stay 5-6 years...is there a specific reason for that number like a planned move to another part of the country or returning to a previous location? Or, are you just thinking that would be a good time to move on to a bigger house or better location or better school district?Would a slightly grander scale renovation make this a house you could plan to stay in for 15-20 years? Improve the kitchen and living area also?

The reason I ask this is how much of your life do you actually spend in your bathrooms? I realize you don't like small bathrooms, but do you want to spend 60K to improve the space you spend perhaps 30-45 minutes per day in? Also, while you want to have a reasonably pleasant private time, I don't think you will want to spend much more time in those renovated rooms than you do now. It's not comparable to renovating a kitchen and then being able to enjoy cooking more because you have improved the look and functionality of the space. Or, inviting friends over to enjoy your new patio.

RDV @linda. After 5-6 years we want to move to a better home & a better school district. You definitely have a point w.r.t how much time are we going to spend in bathrooms. It's funny, we were discussing that exact same thing last night :) But the bathroom needs to be remodeled, so I was thinking why not make it decent size than a tiny on. Let me attach a pic of master bath room. That's the entire bathroom

Linda Let me guess, your house was built in the 50s/60s? Seems like master baths seemed to be considered a luxury feature of that timeframe, so just the existence of a master bath was sufficient to make a house desirable...anything larger would probably been considered a waste of valuable space for a smaller home. Of course, I'm not old enough to know that as a fact; its just my opinions based on my background research.

What's behind the shower wall? Is it just plumbing space or is that an extra bump out in an adjoining room? Maybe its a spot to tuck the end of the bathtub in from the other bath? If all else fails, a frameless clear glass shower door and better lighting will do wonders for making that space look better.

RDV @linda, yes, you are right! the house was built in 1958. Behind this bathroom is the home's main entrance alley. If you look into the floorplan above, this is the bathroom attached to the master bedroom. I am thinking of removing the left wall and adding space.