My home is 1050 square feet in Silicon Valley and built in in 1964. When I bought it 12 years ago it
had 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and my first project was remodeling the kitchen and
combining two small bedrooms into one larger bedroom and master bath
suite. Now I have 2 bedrooms and 3 baths
as shown in the floorplan below.

See Figure 1 Original Floorplan

In that remodel, the two smaller original bathrooms were
left unchanged. Now it’s time for a
change. I have a few options and I am
having trouble deciding. I hope I can
get some opinions about what you like and if an option helps or hurts eventual
resale value. In all cases I plan to use
premium materials like whirlpool tub and real stone tile for example. I plan to do almost all of the work except
what I cannot lift myself so I’m not concerned about difficulty, just cost of
goods and impact on resale value. Mainly
I don’t want to damage the value.

In the first option and my original idea, I simply move the
wall dividing the bathrooms and convert the hallway to a half bath and enlarge
the original master bath. This is sensible
but the new master bath will still be small by today’s standards and a separate
tub and shower stall would be cramped. I
want to avoid the combo tub shower if I can.
The new Half bath makes sense.
Who needs 3 full baths in a house with 2 bedrooms? This results in the next drawing

See Figure 2: Option 1 Move the wall

To gain a larger bathroom, I could combine the two and make
a jack and jill like bathroom shared between the bedroom and hallway. This makes sense and probably won’t have too
many conflicts between users in my household but what about future owners. The biggest con is having two doors to manage
locking for privacy and the reduced privacy for the occupant of the front
bedroom. I could do a proper Spa bathroom
with this much space though. I don’t
want a compact tub, I already have one in the back bathroom and I cannot lie
down in it. The option above results in a
5 foot tub max, the option below I can go 6 foot free standing.

See Figure 3: Option 2 Jack and Jill

To restore privacy and to also increase bedroom size in the back,
I could eliminate the hallway and reconfigure the entrance doors to each room
and move a closet or two. The down side
is single entry to the living room (though I could add a door to the back
bedroom) and a smaller entryway. Also the ceiling over the hallway is
6" lower leaving me with a soffit or extensive ceiling changes (moving the
heating ducts etc) in the new area. But Wow, over 65 more square feet for
the back bathroom and I could donate some of that to the front bedroom for
a larger closet.

See Figure 4: Option 3, eliminate the hallway

So, what do you
think? What would you do?