<p>BFF is considering enlarging her kitchen and the remodel plan would require losing her powder room. Do you agree that this might be a mistake from a resale POV? She’s considering moving the PR and losing, instead, a coat closet off the hallway. There is a full bath off a nearby hallway that would be available for guests, but she’s starting to second-guess giving up either of these spaces.</p>
<p>Her kitchen is dated (maybe 20 years old), so a new kitchen with more counter space, etc. would offer good return on the investment. If you were the prospective buyer, would a larger kitchen outweigh powder room and/or storage needs? BTW, this is an older ranch-style home in an established, neighborhood on a lovely tree-lined street.</p>
<p>How many baths total will she have? If it is 3 total baths, that would be ok, IMHO. But if she will only have two baths…I would say no. A couple of houses on our street have a full bath downstairs instead of a half bath. But then they also have two OTHER full bathrooms that service the rest of the house.</p>
<p>I would probably call a realtor who specializes in that neighborhood and ask her/his opinion. Be sure to say thank you most enthusiastically, and promise when you sell, you’ll keep her/him in mind when time to list. :)</p>
<p>Realtors on CC can correct me if this is considered bad form. :o</p>
<p>This might make it OK, but I agree: If she’s reducing the number of bathrooms, it might not be a wise idea.</p>
<p>We just reduced our house from three full baths to two and a half, in order to accommodate a bigger kitchen. However, the bathroom we reduced is on the first floor, where there are no bedrooms, so I thought that would be OK.</p>
<p>^^^Well, they do say that the kitchen is what sells the house, so you probably did fine. As long as there is at least one bathroom on the first floor which is easily accessible, it would not be a problem for me as a buyer.</p>
<p>Personally, I would not consider buying a house without a powder room unless there was something about the property that would totally sweep me off my feet. Ours is located just off the kitchen/family room (great room?, and we use all the time! I probably can do without a coat closet, but will have to have some sort of a coat hanger system for the guests’ coats when we have company.</p>
<p>BB…if the main floor bathroom was a full instead of half bath, would that be OK with you? It would for me…as long as there were TWO additional baths to service the bedrooms.</p>
<p>If it is a dedicated visitor bathroom, it would be fine. I assumed the full-sized bathroom mentioned by the OP is “assigned” to one of the bedrooms, so it will have some private “artifacts” of the person who lives in the bedroom (shampoos, hair spray, toothbrushes, etc.). When I use such a bathroom in someone’s house, I feel like an intruder in their private space. In our area, powder rooms are very, very common.</p>
<p>Yeah, ditto here, and come to think of it, would rarely be adjacent to a kitchen. Sure don’t want to hear someone using the powder room while I’m having a meal in my eat-in kitchen. :eek:</p>
<p>Our powder room is in our entry hall. You walk past the powder room and poof you are in the kitchen. Virtually every colonial house in our area has this arrangement.</p>
<p>As long as there is a bathroom on that floor, I don’t see a problem, but I am not a realtor and some things are important in some markets, so do have your friend ask someone who knows these things for the area and the target market.</p>
<p>The one thing I wished we had had was a full bath instead of just a powder room on the first floor, in our last home, since if any guests or family members had impediments that made going up the stairs a problem, getting a shower would be an issue My friend broke her leg which made that an issue. Still another took in her ailing father in law-converted the family room to a room for him which was perfect, but the man did have to take a shower or bath once in a while, and getting him up and down the steps was an issue. Then there was the time one of my kids played in the manure pile and DH had to carry him up to the bathroom embalmed in a sheet. Washing a dog sprayed by skunk on a cold evening is no fun either when you can’t just use a bath right on the main floor. He had to be stuck in a garbage bag with just his head protruding to be get into a tub. </p>
<p>So I am a diehard fan of first floor full baths, and made sure that this house we bought had one.</p>
<p>MY powder room is a full bath that is also attached to the guest bedroom or den, it did make me think briefly when I bought the house, but now I think nothing of it. Mainly a, “hmmmm” then I decided it was fine.</p>
<p>It would be a different story if a kid had that bedroom!!</p>
<p>I presume the “powder room” is a small 1/2 bath, ie a toilet and sink. I have seen TV home shows where prospective buyers comment negatively about a bathroom off the kitchen. A coat closet seems a must unless far south. It could be a harder decision if the house has 2 1/2 baths. Check with local real estate pros in the area- it doesn’t matter what 90% of the rest of the country does but what is locally best.</p>
<p>Our powder room is between the kitchen and the dining room. It’s actually sort of a carbuncle off the house. Clearly an afterthought. I think a first floor full bath, as long as you don’t have to go through a bedroom to get to it is fine. If it’s used only by a guest room, more than fine. I’m assuming a master bath and another bath for the family use. That said, I love our house, but we have no master bath, and our second bath is in the basement where it’s pretty much of no use to anybody. I had a house without a coat closet and will never do that again.</p>