Making due with what we have

In this crazy real estate market Arin and I have have come back to the question, "why move at all?" A very good question considering our house is as big as most of the places we can afford anyways. So the next question we ask ourselves is, "is there something we could do to our existing house to make it what we want out of our next house?" We have often toyed with this idea. Especially me, who I think has an architect buried deep inside them somewhere thanks to my father.
But it wasn't until one day when Arin and I were sitting in our car in our driveway in the rain in total despair over the houses we had seen that we stumbled upon what we both thought would be a great remodel idea. We had always limited ourselves to exploring ways we could rearrange interior walls, but in most respects, the house already has an ideal layout for its size:

However, we never thought of moving exterior walls to make more room inside. And when we began to consider the possibilities, we quickly stumbled upon an idea we both loved:

Of course, this plan is not without it's problems. Very few of which actually has to do with the design. The problem is with the property itself. We shared this plan with our realtor, Sandi Klemmer, and she told us what we were in denial about: its not likely that the remodel is likely to help your property value enough to justify the cost. After all, Arin and I are not looking to live here for the rest of our lives, we just want it to last five more years. And in that time frame, we don't think we would be able to recoup our costs.
Of course, we could be wrong, but when you start talking about a $75,000-$100,000 remodel (at least), you can't fool around.
No worries. Arin and I have a million ideas for the interior - primarily that back room right behind our bedroom... just punch a hole through the wall by the closet, move the laundry to the basement, and you could make a great changing room, a larger closet, who knows?

Comments

[Dori]

What do you need a changing room for? In college I had a shy roommate who changed in her top bunk so we wouldn't see her naked (think back to they layout of a Unit 3 triple to better inform this imagery). I say if you and Arin start running out of room you could just change in your bed. Heck, you could just wear your clothes to bed the night before. By my calculations, this could result in an extra 15 minutes of sleep a day.