I live in a house much like the one pictured above.  One main floor with 3 small bedrooms, on somewhat small bathroom, a living room and a kitchen/dining area.  There is also a somewhat finished basement with god-awful wood paneling. There is also a bathroom with a small stand-in shower.  With the housing market being terrible right now, my hubby and I have taken on the state of mind that if we can't move into something bigger and better, then we might as well put our money we've got into renovating what we have. 

One of our main space issues is the fact that our bedroom is like 10 x 12 maybe.  Which once you add a Queen bed and a couple dressers, doesn't give much space.  And the closet is tiny.  If you have seen my lists, you know I am the kinda girl who needs a walk in closet, and what I have isn't cutting it.  Hubby's clothes are already banished to another room, and I still don't have enough space.  Anyway, let me get to the point.  Hubby wants to re-do the basement with drywall we can paint, and to make the one 25' x 25' area into 2 bedrooms and one rec room.  We would then move our girls 5.5 and 2.5 down into these rooms.  Then we would demolish the closet separating our bedroom and the other bedroom upstairs and make it one with a walk in closet. 

Now, my initial response is was negative.  One, I didn't think it made sense to do this much demolition and remodeling to a house. That with that much change, we might as wait out the market and buy a new house.  Two, I worry it will hurt our resell customer range.  Would this turn away potential interested parties having two bedrooms downstairs, one master upstairs and a small office size bedroom upstairs.  Three, I felt that this would be too scary for the girls, and maybe potentially dangerous, though I had trouble figuring out why it might be dangerous.

Now, I also had some positive thoughts.  One, we wouldn't keep the girls awake at night with our tv watching or if we had company over.  Two, I wouldn't have to be woken up by the sound of my 5 yr old singing to herself at the top of her lungs. She will play in her room for a period, and I usually get a little extra sleep that way, but lately she's very loud in the morning. Three, we'd gain much more room in the main bedroom, and that might be a selling feature later on and something that would set us apart from other homes in the neighborhood for sale. Four, we'd go from a 3 bedroom home to a technically 4 bedroom home, with one room being a large master bedroom.

I'd like to know what you guys out there think.  If you have kids, let me know what think from the viewpoint of being a parent. If you're married/engaged and think kids are in the picture, let me know what you would think if you saw this master upstairs, other main Bedrooms downstairs idea in a home. Or if neither of those fit you, think of how might have taken the idea as a kid or if you were a parent.  Definitely let me know if you have ever lived in a house laid out that way, and what you thought about it.

So, to sum up.  Thinking of making the basement rec room into two bedrooms for girls aged 5.5 and 2.5 + a smaller rec room.  There is easy access to a bathroom downstairs. Kids are good sleepers. We would probably use a monitor to keep an ear on the kids. We would then turn the main bedroom upstairs into a twice its size master suite. We would gain 2 bedrooms.  Looking for input as to a general opinion on the idea, especially considering kids safety and later resale issues.

Thanks!