Have any of you went through a bedroom home addition? Right now we have a 3 bedroom ranch (but one of the bedrooms isn't big enough for a bed, we use it as an office) and 1.5 baths. We talked about moving once kids come into the picture, but now I'm thinking about maybe adding a master bedroom (with bath). I'm just curious, for those that have done this, if it was worth it? How long it took (I know that depends on a lot of factors..)? Or, do you wish you would've just moved? I really like our location, and we've done so much to the home already that I would be sad to leave! Plus, we can do a lot ourselves (DH is a plumber, my dad is an electrician & help with the drywall process, etc.)
We considered buying a house that we would have eventually added on to, but ultimately decided against it because we felt the addition would over-improve the home and make it hard to sell at a decent price. The big factor was that the house didn't have a basement and people expect those in our area. If we had been in a situation like yours though where we had already put a bunch of work in, loved the area, etc I definitely would have been more inclined to do it.
According to our real estate agent, additions are messy and throw the house into disarray for a bit, so it's probably much easier if you can do it before you have kids.
Have you looked at your zoning to determine if you're allowed to add? If you're not already certain you can call your local zoning board and they can help you figure it out. We needed the deed to get the lot dimensions and set back so that they could figure out how much more we were allowed to build. It's generally easier to get approved to build up (as in add a story) than to build over more land.
We have a townhome and recently added a third bedroom. We did not alter the exterior of our home though, just the interior. We had previously had 20ft ceilings in our living room with a loft overlooking the living room. We added a floor above the living room and closed that room off- creating a third bedroom. It was a lot of work and very stressful because our entire house was basically out of commission aside from our bedroom for more than 10 weeks. We did all the work ourselves and with the help of DH's BF- a general contractor- he helped for free We still aren't completely done with the actual room but the rest of the house is finally put back together.
We would definitely do it again. The whole addition from start to finish should end up costing about $4k which was still a whole lot cheaper than moving and we also love our location. We're planning to start having kids within the next year or so and we'll stay in our current home for at least another 5 years.
Do you know the basic cost per sf for new construction in your area? Additions usually cost 1.2-1.5 times that because there are a lot of things that need to be integrated. That doesn't make them a bad choice though if you love the area and your current home. The hardest hurdle to jump is tying the new structure and utilities to the existing home. Ideally you want your addition to run with the floor joists and as close to your current plumbing vent stacks as possible. If your current home has a basement ideally you'll want a crawlspace under your addition not be slab on grade so the two pieces don't shift apart overtime. You really want to hire an architect who works with or has on board a structural engineer. Poorly planned out additions can actually decrease your home's value while well laid out ones increase it.
When planning a new addition plan to reside and re-roof the whole house so everything is integrated. New windows, flashing, and gutters will need to be added to the addition and sometimes people replace the these for the whole house as well if they are in poor condition.
Additional bathrooms (especially big ones with multiple shower heads and whirlpool tubs) mean bigger water heater and water softeners. More sf = a bigger furnace and air conditioner unless your current ones are very oversized. Additions usually have three exterior walls so there is a high heating and cooling load per sf added to your house. Hopefully you're not in the country because more bathrooms & bedrooms could mean a bigger septic system as well per code. If your existing electrical panel is full you might need a second half size one or you'll have to rework the existing panel (lots and lots of cost there).
Consider how big your backyard is and if an addition of that size will drastically decrease your yard or not. That can be a turn off to future buyers.
Flooring and trim are two of the interior finishes you have to look at blending. Depending on how the new addition is laid out you might be able to make a separate transition from the old to the new but again the best laid out additions flow seamlessly so the interior finishes should as well.