Thinking of converting a dining room into a bedroom (flooring, counter top, painted)

[movinginva]

We have a very small house, and are trying to squeeze in a small master suite. We are thinking of converting our formal dining room, which we never use, and has a pantry, into a bedroom, and expanding the attached half bath to turn it into a full bath. We will then remove the wall between our existing 3rd bedroom and kitchen to create an open kitchen/dining area. The house will keep the house a three bedroom home, but we will now have two baths, and dining space that we will actually use. The only two slight problem I see is the fact that the door to the garage will open adjacent to the new bedroom door in a short hallway off what will now be the dining area, and the fact that the breaker box is in the existing pantry, which we will use as a closet. Any thoughts on this?

[Avalon08]

Hmmm....sounds like an awful lot of money and work to keep the same square footage and number of bedrooms....I wish you could show us a floorplan. Are you updating or reconfiguring your kitchen too, now that it will have all that open space? Like an island or peninsula or something?

[KathrynAragon]

I agree with Avalon. Have you considered buying a house that meets your needs better, while interest rates are still so incredibly low? They won't stay this low.

[nuts2uiam]

I guess depending upon where you are a dining room is a desired room. I would ask a few local realtors this question.

[newyorkergraduate]

Don't open up the 3rd bedroom. Convert the dining room and leave your house as a 4-bedroom. Set aside a table in the living room as a dining area.

[Tallybalt]

In most houses, especially small houses, the dining room is immediately adjacent the kitchen.

Can you not take down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and turn that space into your desired open kitchen/dining room?

[movinginva]

Not sure if you will be able to get a sense of what the three areas I would like to work with look like from the attachment. Ultimately, what I would like to accomplish is a second full bathroom that ideally would be an ensuite to allow added privacy, particularly when we have guests. As it is now, the kitchen and dining room are right next to each other, but between those two rooms is the pantry and half bath. The half bath opens into the hallway opposite the entrance to the garage which makes that small hallway seem really odd. We would close off the bathroom door and install a door from the dining room turned bedroom and extend the existing bath enough so that we can have a small ensuite. The kitchen would then move into our existing third bedroom, which is the smallest in the house, allowing us to keep it a three bedroom house, and the new dining area would be where the kitchen was.

I know that moving is an option, but it is not something that we are prepared to do at this time. Also, given the configuration of the house, there would be nowhere to put a dining table if we were to just make the dining room a 4th bedroom.

[KathrynAragon]

OP you probably know this but moving an entire kitchen to another room is going to set you back at least $30,000. Then you're going to be adding a bathroom and doing other stuff in other rooms, which will mean new paint, new flooring, etc.

Just be sure that the house is worth what you're about to put in it. I mean, we're talking probably close to $50,000 at least. Is the house going to appreciate in value that much? That's something to think about.

We just did a PARTIAL renovation of our kitchen - meaning it stayed in the same room and we kept some of the cabinets in the same place and ALL of the appliances in the same place - then painted, added new flooring, new counter tops, etc and it was over $30,000. And we stayed in the same room. Oh, we also renovated the powder room as well, but that was PEANUTS compared to the cost of the kitchen!

[ocngypz]

I wouldn't move the kitchen.

I'd knock down the shared wall between the kitchen and the third bedroom.

Also knock down the "bar".

I'd replace the lost counter and cooking with an island.

The closet shown would be reconfigured to open into the kitchen area and would be your pantry.

[MissTerri]

It looks and sounds like it could be a worthwhile swap. In small houses, sometimes it makes sense to swap rooms since every square inch counts and reconfigure space for more privacy. I say go for it.