If you post a picture of your home, we can give you better feed back. We also need more information about the house, where is the M bedroom located, front, back, side? Depending on how your home sits on site also determines which way you can expand.

In my old neighborhood of 3BR ranches, the only way to go was either up and add more bedrooms/bathrooms or out the back to expand the living spaces. The homes were all hard up on the sites and maxed out to the front & side yard set backs.

--Candace

Don't have any pics at the moment, but I'll post one later. The rancher sits on 1 acre which is rectangular. No room to go out the side, but plenty in back. The master bedroom is in the rear left corner of the house when looking at the house. I have a full and half bath, which are side by side. The full bath is against the back wall with a door into the MBR. The other end of the bath has a door into the powder room which has another door opposite that opens into the hallway. Wierdest bathroom set up I've ever seen, but it works ok. My two boys use the powder room as their "potty" and only use the full bath for bathing. These two baths run parallel to the MBR. Stairs to basement are at the opposite end of the house against the outside wall.

Deb in PA

Your layout sounds a lot like mine. On our property, going back would be the only option. We did put a 4th bedroom/bath in our basement, but not a master, and it's a walk-out basement. We toyed about putting a 2nd story above our garage as a master bedroom at one point, but didn't do it.

My cousin bumped her ranch house out the full length of the house, adding space to her master, bath & kitchen/dining. She also had a walk-out basement, and it was a 2 story addition. I'm sure it was worth every cent.

An advantage of bumping out the back and adding another bath would be the ability to put a door into the addition for easier access to the bath from outside. We have an above ground pool and if you have to use the facilities now you have to traipse thru the kitchen and down the hall to get there.

But there is a strong consideration to adding a MBR suite downstairs because of not needing a new foundation and not changing the shape of the house.

Another question I have is the feasibility of putting an outside door into a basement that has none. Cement block walls. My yard gently slopes away from the back of the house. I'm wondering if I could regrade a section to have a walkout basement, even if it's only a small section of the basement.

Deb in PA

It sounds like the answer is there it just depends upon your budget.

A second floor is going to be the most costly. As far as design considerations would be where to locate the new stairwell. You also would not have to do the entire second floor, but just enough to get what you need.

Adding onto the first floor sounds like the best idea to me. It is cost affective and you can add as little or as much space that you need.

If you are going to put yourself in the basement, there is another list of requirements. In NY you have to meet state code requirements for light/vent and egress. This means large deep window wells & bigger windows. If it is a walk out basement, then it those requirments are much easier to satisfy. The other considerations are enviromental. How is the dampness? Air circulation? Does it "feel" like a basement. In my area, basement bedrooms are a tough sell.

The home I grew up in had one full bath. You just gotta learn to be considerate.

Candace