Dreaming of an addition -- where to start?

[dr.girlfriend]

So, DH and I were kind of idly dreaming of doing an addition on our house.  It probably would be cheaper/easier to just move to a bigger house in the same neighborhood, but we do love our house.  It's got plenty of living space (although the kitchen is small but newly renovated), but has two small bedrooms upstairs with a small bathroom between them.  The bathroom is already a crunch for getting ready in the morning, and ultimately as DS gets older it's going to be worse, as well as inconvenient to have our bedrooms so close I think.  Not to mention if we really stay here through retirement we won't want to handle the stairs that often.  I think in our dream plan we'd replace the garage/attic with a ground-level master bedroom suite with master bath, french doors out to the backyard/patio, and maybe even laundry up there (it's currently in the basement).  So, how do we even go about planning for this to have a rough estimate of how much it would cost?  Meet with an architect first, or a builder to see if it's feasible?  Is there something we would need to check out with our county to see if there's some restriction on what we could build?  We don't have an HOA or anything.  Here's the current house -- the structure in the middle used to be a porch, and now is a family room.  The garage has the peaked roof on the right.

[Deleted]

That is a really cute houe! I love it.

We are currently adding onto our house (not to the extent you want to, but enough) I just started my constantly talking to H about it (haha), pinning pictures I liked and basically daydreamed. Then we sort of drew it out on paper kdg. style.

We then called a general contractor (I know they're hard to find in some areas, but here they're pretty easy/helpful). He came out told us what would and wouldn't work based on code and other factors. We then went to a local lumberyard/home center who has an architect on staff, drew us a few blueprints of the options and we went from there.

[LadySusan]

Your house is beautiful! Whatever you do, I hope it doesn't change the front too much. I am curious about the answers you get because I daydream about doing some stuff to our home. Our realtor told us $100 to $200 per square foot rule of thumb for remodeling or adding.

[House4Me]

I would start with a contractor. Most contractors work with an architect. A contractor can give you a rough estimate of what add ons will be more expensive.

If you convert a garage that's cheap. If you change the roof line of your house, it could run as much as 60k to add a mere 10 feet b/c now you need to re-roof. If you are adding up, meaning you are adding sq feet on a second floor that is big bucks -- $150-200k for 400 sq feet.

Adding on structurally is expensive. And any budget a contractor gives you should budget another 10% over for things that come up during the remodel that were not anticipated.

[auntie]

I'd start with your local zoning office and make sure you have room to add-on.

I have a friend who has a cul de sac lot similar to mine but not as deep. She wanted to add an IL suite for her 90 year old mom- bedroom, large closet, ADA compatible bath, and a nice sized sitting room. Her contractor, who has done several of these sketched her out a couple of options to give her some idea of how this could be done- turns out she doesn't have a large enough lot to meet the stormwater management guidelines of no more than 25% of the lot impermeable. Plus, her preferred plan would not meet easement rules (20' from the adjacent lot) for the township. She is selling a perfectly nice 3000 sqft paid for house in order to buy 5000 sqft with a sweet suite for mom.

[auntie]

ETA: Your house is very appealing. Could you keep the facade and build behind the garage?

My aunt had a little Victorian on a hill, she added a huge addition- LR, 3 BRs, and bath behind. It maintained the look of the house and made it work better as a year round house.

[dr.girlfriend]

Apr 23, 2015 13:48:59 GMT -5 House4Me said:

I would start with a contractor. Most contractors work with an architect. A contractor can give you a rough estimate of what add ons will be more expensive.

If you convert a garage that's cheap. If you change the roof line of your house, it could run as much as 60k to add a mere 10 feet b/c now you need to re-roof. If you are adding up, meaning you are adding sq feet on a second floor that is big bucks -- $150-200k for 400 sq feet.

Adding on structurally is expensive. And any budget a contractor gives you should budget another 10% over for things that come up during the remodel that were not anticipated.

Would "converting" a garage allow installation of a full bath?  Or does that just mean finishing the walls and floors, etc.?  In other words, if I keep the exterior would I still be able to make it into a master suite, or does the plumbing and heating/ac required move it out of that category of "conversion"?

[dr.girlfriend]

Apr 24, 2015 7:02:14 GMT -5 auntie said:

ETA: Your house is very appealing. Could you keep the facade and build behind the garage?

My aunt had a little Victorian on a hill, she added a huge addition- LR, 3 BRs, and bath behind. It maintained the look of the house and made it work better as a year round house.

Most other houses in the neighborhood have added on to the back of the main brick structure, but this is how we're situated on the corner lot:



So only a narrow 6' or so alley separates us from the lot behind us.

[auntie]

It's a great house.

[House4Me]

Any time you have to add or remove plumbing that is going to be expensive. I would just reach out to a contractor to get a quote. They shouldn't charge you for a ROUGH quote.

[LadySusan]

The red brick building behind you is the neighbor?

If you changed the garage into living space, what would you do with your car? Just keep it in the driveway?

Could you add a second story? Would that give you much more space?

[dr.girlfriend]

Apr 24, 2015 12:33:49 GMT -5 LadySusan said:

The red brick building behind you is the neighbor?

If you changed the garage into living space, what would you do with your car? Just keep it in the driveway?

Could you add a second story? Would that give you much more space?

Yes, the red brick building behind me is the neighbor's house.

We would just keep the car in the driveway, we never park it in the garage anyway.  Now, where all the junk in the garage would go is another story...

The main house is already two stories.  From what I've understood, the previous owners looked into adding a second story on top of the former-porch-turned-dining-room and it wasn't practical for some reason.  But, in any case, I think we'd want a ground floor bedroom for if we stay here through our old age.  :-)