Would you convert a garage to a bedroom?

[Anonymous]

I have a 3BR house and am considering converting my garage to a bedroom or perhaps even 2 bedrooms. It's 24X13 so could conceivably be 2 additional bedrooms. I'm debating between the following choices:

1) Convert to 1 large BR
2) Convert to 2 smaller BR or BR/office
3) Convert to 1 decent size BR and leave a small area as garage so could store lawn mower, etc.

We're expecting twins and already have 2 kids so we definitely need the space.

Would love to hear if others have done this and how it impacted resale value. I could definitely see it hurting the value, but then again if I went from a 3BR to a 5BR house, it may help it?

Thanks for any insight.

[Anonymous]

We talked to our realtor about whether or not converting our garage into a family room or guest room/office would make sense. The verdict was that based on the location of our garage in relation to the rest of the first floor, the flow wouldn't be very good.

Something to consider is what the standard is in your neighborhood. Have most people converted the garage to living space of some sort? Or do most people park their cars in the garage? You don't want to be out of step with the rest of the neighborhood when it is time to sell.

Also think about what the size of the room will be once you have put in studs, sheet rock, etc. And what will the ceiling height be once there is subfloor, flooring, ceiling, etc. Is there a bathroom nearby? Bedrooms that are far away from a bathroom don't "fit".

Could you convert an attic instead? Or add on?

If you do convert it, I'd suggest building a shed for the bikes and yard stuff.

[Anonymous]

I've never seen this done well. It always looks like a garage converted into a bedroom due to the placement of a garage via-a-vis other bedrooms. Ceiling is usually lower too.

[Anonymous]

No.

If you do, make sure to spend the money to do a good job. There's nothing worse than a badly done garage conversion.

[Anonymous]

We are looking at houses and i'm always turned off by a garage conversion. The driveway ends in a window. I suppose if it is the back of the house it would be ok. Its nice to have a garage for storage and kids bikes etc.

[Anonymous]

Where is the house? Just trying to get an idea of the neighbhorhood and what else is there. We had a few of these in our neighborhood and I must say, being the ones that had an actual garage was pretty nice. One of our neighbors converted their garage AND added another layer on top of their house - the addition above looked good, the garage was odd.

[Anonymous]

In our neighborhood there are a couple of houses in which the owners built an addition on top of the garage. They were done tastefully (blend in nicely with original structure) and did not sacrifice the garage space. Sure it's not inexpensive!

[Anonymous]

Don't tell me. You're in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Um, no. Sounds too virginia to me.

[Anonymous]

I have no constructive advice on how it would affect the value of your home, but wanted to share...

My parents did this in our childhood home when we were young (big family). I don't think it looks bad at all and I still enjoy teasing my brothers who had to "sleep in the garage" as kids. Now, when my husband and I visit my parents, we have to "sleep in the garage." On the positive side, the room looks a lot better now that all of the bad 70s dark wood paneling has been replaced.

[Anonymous]

I would echo what everyone said about seeing what was done in the neighborhood. When we were looking at houses we saw a few with the converted garage and I think in a neighborhood with mostly garages we would not pick that house unless we had need of the more bedrooms. If the neighborhood is mostly carports or driveways, not having a garage is not as big of a deal.

Anyway, the neighborhood we are in has very few garages and we don't have a garage and only had one of those tiny plastic sheds. We finally got the big 10X8 with a tall ceiling shed. It will make a huge difference in the utility room which now holds everything under the sun including the kids bikes. It is a pain to have to go the utility room to get their bikes - not to mention there are time I can barely get to the washing machine and back with all the stuff back there. The other wishlist item - which can't happen for us with the property line setup - is a driveway where two cars can fit side by side. We have the typical where husband parks on the street and then parks behind me after I am home (same way he grew up). It would be so nice if we could both fit next to each other. So one thought with all the future bicycles and sporting equipment for 4 kids and eventually cars - having a big shed and a space where two cars can park side by side in the driveway will make a difference. The only other thing is a workroom - are you or DH handy? Are you DIYers? Would you use the garage to cut wood or for various project or to hold the materials let's say for a DIY bathroom update?

I think others have mentioned building over the garage. Is that an option?

[Anonymous]

You would be better off financially buying a new house (with the bedroom space you need) than to try to convert your garage to a bedroom. Garages are an important resale feature for homes, and you will actually be losing equity in the house by doing this (potentially expensive) conversion. It would be akin to converting one of the bathrooms to a closet...makes sense to you if you're in desperate need of closet space, but it absolutely will lower the value of the house.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all of the advice. All of the houses in our neighborhood have garages so I think the verdict is clearly not to convert the garage into bedrooms. We may end up having to move to a larger house rather than go through the hassle of converting the garage only to lose equity. There is already a room over the garage so going up is not an option. Thanks for your opinions and advice.