A friend recently told me a story about her small 2 bedroom home. She said that the family who had once lived there had 12 kids. The home had only 1 bathroom. To help with the shortage of bathrooms the children volunteered at the church across the street. Apparently, this granted them a key to the building, along with round the clock access to an extra restroom.
Stories like this may be the reason why adding a new bathroom is listed as the #1 home renovation project that brought people joy, as reported by Quality Remodeler. (It was tied for first actually, with New Fiber Cement Siding being the other renovation project that made owners the happiest.) Let’s face it, nothing can rob one’s joy faster than not having access to a bathroom. If you don’t live across from a church in need of volunteers, you might consider increasing the joy level of your home ownership by adding another restroom.
My uncle once referred to Spokane a “remodeler’s paradise”. I’m still not sure if that was meant to be a compliment but it is certainly true that Spokane is an old city. While this provides us with rich architecture and fine craftsmanship in many historical homes it also means a lot of us live in homes which suffer from functional obsolescence. Or in other words – they are out of date.
Many of the homes here were built in my Grandma’s generations; when folks were just glad to have indoor plumbing. Fast forward a few decades and we modern dwellers have become accustomed to a slightly more comfortable lifestyle. The average homeowner today considers it a drawback to have merely 1 indoor toilet. Bring your home into the 21st century – add a bath.
Enough about my extended family – let me get to my final point, resale value. Adding a new bathroom can increase your home’s value. Many buyers put in number of bathrooms as a search criteria when looking for a home. They may not even look at your home if it only has one bathroom. Realtors Remolding Impact Report states that the percentage of value recovered from a new bath is 52%. That means not only will you enjoy an extra bath, but you will be giving your home’s value a shot it the arm as well.
You may not have 12 children, but you can remodel your house and add a bathroom anyway. The family who buys it one day might have 12 children and just think how grateful all those kids will be. What other project can give you joy, modernize and add resale value to your home all while giving you the added benefit of knowing you will be promoting digestive health for the future generations?