OK —

The two areas where you can waste space expensively would be the closet and the bathroom. Both should provided the space you need, but not much more. Do you entertain in your closet? Throw parties in your bathroom?

Nobody likes a cramped closet, but it’s people with more money than sense who are going to ensure their clothes have a room as big as their child’s. (Think I’m kidding? I saw one house where an entire bedroom — a big one — had been turned into a professionally designed closet.)

Me? I’d much rather have the square footage added to the kitchen or living room, where I actually spend most if my time. And those quartz and concrete countertops look mighty nice….

what matters is the market you’re selling (re-selling) to. If you’re in SF, where there are no children, taking a small kid’s BR and turning it into a master closet is probably smart. If you’re in a more family friendly spot (Alameda or wherever), keep the bedrooms.

I added a second closet to our master and took some space from another BR, but the BR was smallish anyway, and clearly never going to be more than a kid’s bedroom or upstairs office or guest room, so I think it’ll help the value.

Hahahaha, MDAccount, I have to tell you, in terms of practicality I’m on your side. I enjoyed the snazzy photos of stars’ closets but agree with you on the “more money than brains” aspect of spending huge amounts of money on a closet!

David, as always, that’s a very practical analysis. Yes, kid-friendly places – I’m thinking Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito and lotsa the ‘burbs like Walnut Creek, Danville, Orinda – would not be optimal for closets.

But in SF, as you say, there hardly are any children, right? Could one of our SF mavens weigh in on this – I’m thinking maybe it’s a bit more neighborhood-specific?

After seeing your photos Janis, I realized that it might be a good idea for real estaters to put sexy women in the home preview photos. I for one would take a second look regardless of price per square foot!

There are significantly more dogs than children in SF. It has the smallest percentage of school-age children as part of the overall population of any US city.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/22/BAGS3FCBF41.DTL

Hahahahaha good comment, mrbogue! In fact, don’t you think they should put hotties in houses to stage them, too? Or maybe standing outside, even bettah!

Good God, that’s shocking, David. Fewer school-age children percentagewise than any other U.S. citizen. I guess it’s the insanely high house prices. As one of my Redfin blogger colleagues said, that bubble’s made of steel.

There’s another good reason to turn a room into a closet in SF: Victorians tend to have precious little closet space! Add to that, the bedrooms are quite small. With very little effort, you could end up sleeping with your clothes.

That is a good point, Rebecca RL, and despite the excellent straight line about sleeping with your clothes, that’s all I’m going to say.

[...] it may not be as sexy a subject as…say…closets, but just like every home rehab project, you have to start somewhere.  And even in your choice of [...]