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the master suite. “Now the home is a four-bedroom, three-bath, so it’s still competitive in that neighbor- hood – and a whole lot nicer!” she said.
In these before images, this kitchen is cut off from the rest of the living space despite the strategically installed “window” into the split- level family area below. In the after image (see p. 49), the kitchen is separated to some extent from the living and dining areas by the marble-topped island. There is plenty of room to spread out, but the family can still interact when they wish to do so. The new space is brighter, less cramped, and far more flexible in terms of usage. Images courtesy of Patricia Russell.
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UNDERSTANDING YOUR OPTIONS IN OPEN-CONCEPT DESIGN Homeowners do not just want “open concept” homes because they are trendy, however. Open floorplans meet the needs of today’s modern, “connected” families in ways that compartmentalized floor plans simply cannot. In an era where everyone in the family is connected to the internet in some form or fashion, many households require an open floor plan so that family members can congregate in a community area even while they all are engaged with various electronic devices. However, all that open space might start to backfire, speculated The Wall Street Journal in an article pub- lished in mid-2017. In that article, psychologists, interior designers, and real estate analysts all agreed that “the pen- dulum” could swing away from wholly open floor plans (popular in recent years) toward “broken floor plans,” which use design elements like pocket and barn doors, three-quarter walls, or islands (see image on p. 49) to sec- tion off areas while still retaining a sense of community. Given that something as simple as a barn door or a pocket door could, as a design element, net your price tag as much as 13 percent more than a comparable home without these additions, taking advantage of this trend is certainly something that could pay off quickly when the time comes to put your investment property on the market. However, simply adding a barn door without updating the rest of the home is not likely to do the trick. Instead, this type of update is something that should be done in conjunction with other design changes instead of as a substitution. Also, be aware that a little goes a long way. While pocket doors may serve a practical purpose, too many barn doors simply undermine the installation as a statement piece in your design. The same is true for open-concept design in a home. While it is important to open up the floorplan of older homes to make them attractive and competitive at retail price points, do not go overboard. Be careful to retain some options for privacy so that the occupants of the home can find some space to focus and be alone somewhere other than the bathroom! •
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OPEN FLOOR PLANUPDATES BYTHE NUMBERS: $ 400 barn door costs start around $400, not including installation. $ 4,000- $ 10,000 cost of replacing cast-iron pipes in a 1,500-square-foot, two-bath home, depending on the materials used. $ 500- $ 4,000 cost of professionally removing a wall to combine spaces. If a wall is load-bearing or hides plumbing pipes, it will tend to be more expensive to remove it. $ 150 approximate cost, per hour, charged by architects and structural engineers. You will need at least one of these professionals to help you determine what type of support will replace a wall when you remove it and the logistics associated with that process.
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to create a master suite with a bathroom instead of adding more square footage can yield returns as high as 72 percent. “I recently saw a 1954 split-level where the owner had taken out some walls, redone the entire inside, and turned two bedrooms into a master suite,” said Atlanta-based realtor and investor Lorraine Beato. “They got an offer above list price almost immedi- ately,” she added. Beato emphasized, however, that in- stalling a master bedroom or master suite is not a catch-all solution in competitive markets. “Depending on what part of town you are in, you are going to need
to have at least three or four bedrooms when your remodel is done,” she said. The same issue goes for the bathrooms. If you co-opt a bathroom for your master suite, make sure there are enough other bath- rooms remaining to “go around.” “For example, in another property with five bedrooms and two bathrooms, they were able to take an adjoining bed- room and a ‘jack-and-jill’ bath that also attached to the hallway to create a really large master suite,” Beato said. In that project, however, the owner had to install another bathroom since they removed the guest-bath access when they created
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Carole VanSickle Ellis is the editor of Think Realty Magazine. She can be reached at cellis@thinkrealty.com.
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