Strive for year-round functionality in holiday remodels

The holiday season is often the busiest time of year for gatherings, so it is also the time when your home's capacity and functionality are tested.

This is when you learn (or remember) you really could use that extra bedroom for Grandma, your dining room isn't quite big enough when you add that second leaf in the table, and that it might be nice if your guests didn't have to pass through a bedroom to get to the bathroom.

Therefore, it is about this time of year that many of our clients start discussing options for remodeling. If one of their goals is to have a home that lends itself to entertaining, they often consider great rooms, guest bedrooms and additional bathrooms during the planning process.

While issues related to gathering or entertaining may be the catalyst for finally talking to an architect, we help our clients determine how they want their homes to function in everyday life as well as when company visits. The remodel has to make sense for more than Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Adding extra rooms for occasional guests can be more than just a luxury if you plan a room that can be used for multiple purposes.

Examples include an office with a Murphy bed, a craft room with enclosed cabinets and a trundle bed, or a hide-a-bed couch in a library. Depending on your needs, you can design your seasonal guest room to function actively during the rest of the year.

Additional bathrooms are also a common wish. It could make a pleasant difference if your dinner guests could use a powder room as opposed to the children's bathroom.

Likewise, a private bathroom associated with a guest room makes for a more relaxing long-term visit.

Your guests will feel more welcome if they don't feel they are disrupting the normal routine of the household.

While extra bedrooms are fairly cost-effective to create, bathrooms get a little more complicated and expensive with plumbing and electrical costs.

In addition, the simple finishes of a bedroom (painted walls with carpet on the floor) are a bargain compared to the tile, cabinetry and plumbing fixtures required in a bathroom.

However, those extra costs also bring added value.

Adding a bathroom of any size changes the ratio of bedrooms to bathrooms and automatically increases the market value of your home.

Now that your guests have a comfortable place to stay, they need a place to party.