We have considered it, thanks. The concern is I don't really want to walk right into the kitchen/island off the front door. Afraid that might hurt resale down the road.

You’re not relocating stairs. Ever.

Is your laundry currently in the basement? It would be great to get that to the main floor - but the office isn't the right space for it (too difficult to vent the dryer).

How about this:

- Master bedroom to family room

- expand master bath

- Master closet to office (perhaps with a hallway along the stairs, so you don't have to go through the kitchen to get to the bedroom)

- Dining to master bedroom space

- remove front powder room, expand the entry, and make a laundry room where the dining room is (possibly add pantry space too)

- I would leave the kitchen in the same place, but you could knock out the wall between kitchen and new dining (current master) to make an L + island, expending the L into the current master closet space

I would swap the kitchen & the dining room. Having an open concept would help your resale more that hurt it for walking into the open kitchen. What do you walk into now? where is your front door?

Moving stairs would be expensive.

I wouldn't convert the back of the house - adding the current "Family Room" to the Master Bedroom - to make a larger master suite: all light from the back of the house would be blocked off in the main living areas, and there's no way to get outside. I think that would impact resale value more than having a kitchen at the front entry (you see that all the time where I live, as people combine dining room w/kitchen because smaller homes and additions too expensive).

Consider: (a) add existing kitchen to master suite (close up basement stairs entry - make the entry to it from the current office wall); (b) remove wall between office and 'family room' to make new large kitchen - which would not only enable light to come in from that side of the house into living areas, but nice access to the patio, bbq grill from kitchen, kids to run outside where you can see them from the kitchen.

Possible affordable option:

The kitchen isn't wide enough for an island with seating, so I drew a narrow work table--ap 24" deep. If you skip the work table, the base cabinets could be pulled out from the wall, to increase counter space.

GW discussions--deeper counters

Alternate layout with separate prep and clean-up zones, with dish storage near the DR:

Does your family park and enter through the door next to the powder?

Which area of the house gets the prettiest natural light through the day?

Hi all! Thank you for your help.

We do currently enter from that side door that leads into the Family Room typically as the garage is in the back of the lot there. However, we are planning a deck extension off the back, so wouldn't be against relocating the entry to where the current master is. It would look something more like below.

Mama Goose - thank you for the recs and drawings! We feel (and our realtor agrees) that a second dedicated living space will really help with resale value one day rather than a giant master. While preferred of course, much larger masters aren't typical of the area. Below is a rough sketch (I'm no builder for sure). We will have a contractor measure out official plans to figure out which walls to close, where doors go, etc.

Any other thoughts/recommendations/cost-saving ideas?

Thanks!

Move. Gonna be cheaper to buy the house you really want than trying to make this one over.

Hi Sophie - not in our area and school district. We've priced it out ad nauseam. But thanks for the input.