What’s with the upstairs dressing rooms? What are those for?

its actually the basement, we have a LOT of clothes and needed the space for it

Also, it is very unappetizing to have the powder room door in the kitchen.

Last comment - powder room should go, and the space would be part of the kitchen.

any suggestions on how to fit a powder room or would we just ask guests to go to the basement washroom?

If you are set on having a powder room, change the patio door to a hinged door, and put the powder room where the den is.

Money wasting Remuddle that will make it unsellable.

I assume you are never intending on selling?

Tiny living room, huge kitchen. What’s with that?

what makes it so difficult to sell @Bri Bosh, @Sophie Wheeler? I'm definitely inexperienced and would love to know your opinion. We do plan on staying here for a long time (hence the kind of wasteful basement space) but the "sellability" still matters! Thanks

Your average buyer is not going to want to go down an entire level to have to get to their closet. Your guest bedroom is smaller than the closets, which may be where your priorities are, but the average buyer will value the bedroom having more square footage than the coat closet.

Could you post the floor plan as it is currently? You might get better workable suggestions if you do.

I think a powder room opening directly into the kitchen next to the island is icky. Agree with a previous poster, if you want a bigger kitchen...eliminate that. If you put the second bedroom in the right corner, an adjacent bathroom to the left could serve for guests on the first floor as well as the person who uses the bedroom.

Is the basement subdivided as you show it? I understand you have lots of clothes and coats, but do you really need all those walls to separate who's clothes and coats go where? If you are at all concerned about potential re-sale, keep the rooms flexible.

I don't think it is as bad as others do. I would get rid of the powder where it currently is. Agree with Lucy about location of bedroom shifting to create bathroom access etc.

I think that if you want to subdivide the basement as is that is fine as long as what you have created can easily be turned back into functional bedrooms to sell. So your two closets, for example, can be two additional bedrooms downstairs. If that isn't possible then I think it get trickier. I do think it would be better if your closet could be one and Dan's another and it be two proper sized bedrooms vs three small ones.

Upstairs you have closets in the two bedrooms that are there so that is fine. Maybe not huge but fine.

Is there someone sleeping in the second bedroom upstairs? If not, could you use that as your dressing room? It would be more convenient, especially if you put the bedroom in the corner and did a standard bathroom beside it rather than the odd little bathroom/den space you show now. And it could be easily converted back to a bedroom by a future owner.

Downstairs, you could use the small guest bedroom as Dan's office. The other 2 rooms you have cut up could become guest rooms. This would be better for potential resale than having oddly shaped rooms carved up for closets. And you could certainly use one of the guest rooms for storage if you don't need two.

You might also consider tub/shower combo's in the bathrooms instead of the small showers you show now. As is, the only place for someone to take a soak, or bathe children is in the master bath.

A final idea is explore the possibility of storage under the stairs. You might be surprised how many coats/boots/etc. you could fit there. Lot's of pic's on Houzz for under stair storage.

New Floorplan

thanks for all the suggestions, we've updated a bit of the floor plan to take into consideration flexibility and using the space a bit more efficiently! thanks so much

Ronny where are the floor plans coming from? It’s really not that easy to just change a bathroom from one side of the house to another or remove walls. Do you have a structural engineer involved and an architect or designer you trust?

Hi alison, yes, we're working with a licensed structural engineer, designer and a mechanical engineer (?) and they are submitting the permits/blueprints next week to the city. so far, they've inspected and noted that it is doable to do these structural changes.

Ronny,

Do you want a toilet so close to your front door? Do you want the only access to the deck going through your bedroom?

Remodeling involves so much time, effort, and expense...and the costs of doing so are typically only recouped by a fraction at resale.

You need a profession designer Ronny. Someone who has experience remodeling older bungalows like yours. Whomever is helping you now doesn't have that experience.