Comments on: In Addition

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:51:13 +0000

(I’m still catching up on archives!) I think it’s great that you are living in your house for a while before adding. I just don’t understand why people buy houses and then throw additions on them before they even live in the space – might as well start new. We lived in our house for 7 years before we broke ground on our addition. I’m glad we waited and I’m glad we did the addition. It took 6 months and was not all that painful of a process. We moved out of the house, we have a 3 year old, a crazy dog, and I was pregnant – we’re officially crazy. But, it all worked out in the end and we are so happy. I tracked our progress on a blog http://www.arlingtonhomeaddition.com Come crash any time you want!

By: Stacy

Stacy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:10:48 +0000

We recently wrapped up an addition although we’re still getting settled. We added about 500 sq ft including a new master suite and dining room to our 1200sq ft ranch and though it was a ton of stress and work, we are thrilled with the results. Lots of little things are left to do but the last contractor finished on a Saturday and I went into labor on Sunday so work is much slower now. Anyway, with the right crew and plans it is a great time to do it.

By: I'll remain nameless

I'll remain nameless — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:51:42 +0000

Remaining nameless to protect the innocent… LOL We live in a rental (rambling ranch that you’d love) and originally thought we’d try to buy it at the end of our lease. The size and layout are perfect for our family. The location is excellent. The yard is a great size. HOWEVER… Someone did some renovations along the way and didn’t do them well. They added a fireplace in the living room with tons of brick that seems to be sinking the foundation down into the ground. The ceiling has cracks that are getting worse by the week. There are plumbing issues in the addition that make us think the plumbing was done badly. And there are other little things that you wouldn’t notice on a walk-through, but are really aggrivating as we live here longer. It’s really disappointing because we love the house, but there is no way we would ever buy it in this condition. So my advice is to make sure that things are done correctly! I don’t know if this was done by bad contractors or by home owners that thought they could do it themselves, but they’ve ruined the house.

By: Mike and McGee

Mike and McGee — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:41:27 +0000

I initially liked the idea of adding a set of stairs and finishing out our attic. I was envisioning an open area at the top of the stairs that could be a play area for the kids, plus another one or two bedrooms and a bathroom. However, after actually going up into the attic and looking around, we really don’t have room for it. IF we could find the space to do something other than a spiral staircase, we’d probably only get one good-sized room up there.

So it looks like our only option would be to remove the roof and add a second floor. Since we’re replacing the roof right now, the idea of ripping off a fairly new roof isn’t all that appealing. We don’t have room to add onto the back of the house, unless it’s just a small sunroom, and it’s not possible for us to expand on either side.

By: Michele

Michele — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:31:18 +0000

Hi. 4 years ago my husband built a family room addition to our ranch house – 18 x 20 with a peaked ceiling, 13ft at the highest. It has 2 french doors and an oval window at the peak. I haven’t got around to posting about it yet on my blog. My husband is a high school physics teacher w/no construction experience. When he built it during his summber break he hired someone to do the foundation and the electrical work. There were moments when it was crazy (I was up on scaffolding 14 ft up in the air trying to hold onto rafters as he nailed them to the side walls)but the savings were incredible as compared to the 100k+ estimates contractors in the DC area gave us. If you add on to your house, out or up, consider being your own general contract and/or doing some of the work yourself. It’s a bit stressful but so is hiring someone.

By: urdebest

urdebest — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:28:30 +0000

Hey guys – I’m going to post this with your post so that you can reference it whenever the time comes to do this. My Aunt just finished an enormous renovation/addition to her house, and I was talking to my Uncle (an electrician) about it. He said he would never do it again (apparently all the dust, etc. was crazy, and it took several years to complete), but IF he did, he would definitely hire a GC. They decided not to cause he figured he could do it himself – which he could, but he said that contractors working for a GC are much more committed – his workers would get a call from a GC and go do that job even though they had committed to finishing something on his house (causing crazy delays for them). Getting an estimate now may not be a bad idea so you have a ballpark figure to save for, but I bet that since the prices of materials and labor varies so much that it’ll be a much lower figure than you’ll get in 10 years :)!

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:57:17 +0000

Oh don’t mind my silly husband’s musings about an addition. As he may have failed to emphatically stress, we are about a decade away from seriously entertaining the idea (although we do daydream about it all the time). At the moment our three bedroom house suits us just fine (I currently clean two almost-always-empty guest bedrooms!).

But thanks to all of your super helpful tips we’ll certainly know what to do (and not do) when we’re knee deep in children and bursting at the seams. Until then we’ll just keep imagining that master bedroom with an adjoining master bath- and maybe some french doors leading out onto the patio… a girl can dream, can’t she?

xo,
Sherry

By: Aliya

Aliya — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:17:58 +0000

We live in a house that benefited from an addition. Our 4-bed, 2-bath Colonial used to be a 2-bed, 1-bath home. The addition, done sometime in the 60s or 70s (I think; house was built in the early 40′s), added on the extra bedrooms, bathroom and a big beautiful sunroom. Miraculously, it all looks consistent — helps that the addition is on the back of the house. I highly recommend having professionals involved!

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:01:23 +0000

I think it’s imperative to get a good architect. I am not sure about VA but in CA you can do your own design and have an engineer approve the structural components and get a permit to do your addition, on your own. I hate seeing those “I just added a box on top of my garage” additions.
Also, I feel the additions should be proportional to the rest of the house. If all your bedrooms are small adding a master bedroom (or whatever) that is 4 times larger then the rest of the rooms screams addition.
I agree with others who have said that now is the time to get at least an estimate.
I would love to see a floorplan of your house and possible ideas of what you would like to do.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:29:45 +0000

Oh, yes… get an estimate! At least you’ll know how much you need to save up if this is what you really want to do.