I have a 20′ wide townhouse that currently has the large dining room in the back with the kitchen adjacent. I was thinking to move the kitchen and make both of these rooms into bedrooms. But the separating load-bearing wall only leaves about 6.5′ in the smaller room. It doesn’t seem very ideal. This seems like a typical problem for houses this size. What are some possible solutions to get 2 decent sized bedrooms? Is moving the load bear wall worth the effort?

Thanks in advance for any responses!


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  1. brokelin, I plan to do both since it is a multi-family. I want the extra bedroom without going duplex. As for the kitchen, I intend to go open kitchen by the living room in the front. Thanks for the tip about the natural lighting.

  2. You don’t say what the use of the place is, whether you want to rent it out or inhabit it, and if so, what you will use the rooms for.

    For renting out, you don’t necessarily need 2 decent sized bedrooms. Many people are happy to use the 6.5′ wide rooms as offices, dressing rooms, or rooms for small children.

    If you need two decent sized bedrooms for your own use, then have at it moving walls. But I want to know where you plan to put the kitchen. I had a long narrow brownstone-type apartment where the kitchen was moved from the back to the middle. While I recogized the value of having it nearer the living spaces, it had no natural light. Afer some time, I realized I didn’t enjoy spending time in my kitchen nearly as much as I did in my previous one which had that nice brownstone window at the end. Now that I have a nice big window at the end of my kitchen again, I’ll never live in a place with an internal, no natural light kitchen again.

    Had I bought the place unrenovated, with the kitchen in the back, I would have still moved it, but I would have taken care to either put it where it had natural light, or if in the middle, I’d have put it closer to, and directly in line with, the front windows, so it would get some views out, and views of light, if not direct light in the room itself.

    And, while I like nice light and views in bedrooms, I realize it is more important to me in kitchens.

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