buncha and anyone with house remodeling experience

[ijack]

My parents have a 70's ranch house and are contemplating an addition. Is there a good place online to view pics or floor plans of what their options are? As of right now they're thinking either adding a second story over their very large living room, or maybe extending the house back on one of the sides. They mainly want another bedroom and bath. My google searches aren't turning much up.
Thanks!

[who22]

I generally lurk but here's a before/after photo of one that doesn't look too bad photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2007/07/ranch_addition.html?cat=my_favorite_room

[bunch]

I'm not familiar with any plans for remodels. I think the intended did her own work looking at options, but I'm not sure what program she used.

[barefootcontessa]

We are in the process of doing this. For us, it was going to be significantly more expensive to add upwards, so we passed on that property and went with another that allowed us to put on a two story addition. If you go to a full-service GC, they should have a architect on staff that could give you a rendering and price estimate. This was all part of the process of selecting a GC, so no cost to us. Once we decided we liked a particular GC, we put down 5% of the estimate and the architect drew up actual plans.

[theintended]

Yeah, I just played around using floorplanner.com. Searching for ranch additions wasn't all that helpful to me. A lot will depend on the house itself and what kind of reinforcing it might need in order to add a second story. Talking to a few contractors is really the way to go.

[ijack]

theintended - you added up, right?
my parents want to add another floor, but I think they'd be better served with a main floor addition since they're both about to retire and who knows what will happen with their health.

[theintended]

We haven't yet, but that's still the plan.

We have a bed/bathroom on the main floor that we can move back down to should we grow old in the house and need to. Are they looking to add a master or room for guests? Having guests on a separate floor can be nice for privacy. I know I couldn't stop thinking about it when FIL was visiting most recently.

[ijack]

Their idea is to add a 2nd story master retreat. So yes, there would still be bedrooms on the main floor, but their bedroom would be upstairs.

[bunch]

I agree that they really need to talk to a gc to see if its feasible at all.