Go Small or Big on Home Addition?

[Anonymous]

So we want to add on to our house because we love the neighborhood and the commute, but we really want a master bathroom. I think if we're adding that, then we might as well turn our walled-in sun room into a bigger family room at the same time. The difference in just adding a dormer and making another bathroom upstairs, and adding a bigger family and by extension, a master suite is about $100K. I'm trying to think long term, past just having a master bath so we don't share with the kids, but this is a lot to swallow.

Just the dormer is $60K, a master suite and bigger family room is $150K. Anyone out there do just a dormer bathroom in their crap shack?

[Anonymous]

If you do the larger addition, will the house still be in line with the rest of the homes in the neighborhood? And will the addition match the rest of the house?

How much would it cost you to move to a bigger house that already has everything you want?

That's how you weigh your options. FWIW, I think a master bath is essential!

[Anonymous]

Do the bigger addition. It's only worth it really if you go big for all the dirt, time and toil it will be.

[Anonymous]

This is OP.

There are houses of every size in our neighborhood, from our cottage with 3 small bedrooms, to ones with massive additions, and brand new houses with 5/6 bedrooms. For us to move, not including closing costs, selling our house, etc, it would be around $150-200K more in house, and we would still end up doing the work.

Of course, paying for it all is another issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP.

There are houses of every size in our neighborhood, from our cottage with 3 small bedrooms, to ones with massive additions, and brand new houses with 5/6 bedrooms. For us to move, not including closing costs, selling our house, etc, it would be around $150-200K more in house, and we would still end up doing the work.

Of course, paying for it all is another issue.

Look at how much it is going to cost you in the long run. If you get a HE loan or line of credit you will end up paying significantly more for the project in interest - is that worth it to you? And - the final price will end up costing much more than you think it will - and even more than the piece-meal quotes you are getting right now. Do you have a basement or other room you can use as a family room? I read somewhere recently that the rate of return on family room additions isn't as much as you think. I would think for your money the bigger bang for your buck would be in adding the second bathroom to the house from an investment standpoint.

[Anonymous]

Do you have equity in the house? You should be able to to get a construction loan based on the projected value of your home post-addition. This will add to your mortgage costs, so consider if you can afford what your mortgage would be with a 150k addition vs. a 60k addition. It sounds like your neighborhood would support the added value, so that is a very good thing.

[Anonymous]

We did a master suite addition, plus closets and a laundry room nearby. It made our house perfect for us. We already had a family room though. We took out a HE loan but then refinanced into one 15 year loan to include both loans once construction was complete.

[Anonymous]

We would like to add on because we would want to stay there forever. Our basement ceiling is less than 7 feet (6 ft 4 in) so building down there is not really an option. There's a finished room down there, which we use as a work shop. The rest of the basement is so chopped up, with supporting walls, its unusable. It already has the boiler and laundry.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we want to add on to our house because we love the neighborhood and the commute, but we really want a master bathroom. I think if we're adding that, then we might as well turn our walled-in sun room into a bigger family room at the same time. The difference in just adding a dormer and making another bathroom upstairs, and adding a bigger family and by extension, a master suite is about $100K. I'm trying to think long term, past just having a master bath so we don't share with the kids, but this is a lot to swallow.

Just the dormer is $60K, a master suite and bigger family room is $150K. Anyone out there do just a dormer bathroom in their crap shack?

We were in a similar situation -- except that our smaller reno to add a bedroom and bathroom and dormer plus fix some other issues would have cost about 130k and the larger reno (2-story addition including new master suite and family room) bedrooms was 220k. We are SO happy that we chose the larger project. It has transformed our house and it was cheaper to do that all at once than to do the smaller project now and then later do a 2nd addition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So we want to add on to our house because we love the neighborhood and the commute, but we really want a master bathroom. I think if we're adding that, then we might as well turn our walled-in sun room into a bigger family room at the same time. The difference in just adding a dormer and making another bathroom upstairs, and adding a bigger family and by extension, a master suite is about $100K. I'm trying to think long term, past just having a master bath so we don't share with the kids, but this is a lot to swallow.

Just the dormer is $60K, a master suite and bigger family room is $150K. Anyone out there do just a dormer bathroom in their crap shack?

We were in a similar situation -- except that our smaller reno to add a bedroom and bathroom and dormer plus fix some other issues would have cost about 130k and the larger reno (2-story addition including new master suite and family room) bedrooms was 220k. We are SO happy that we chose the larger project. It has transformed our house and it was cheaper to do that all at once than to do the smaller project now and then later do a 2nd addition.

How did you pay for it though?

I think we may just wait and do it later. We're fine for now, but didn't want to do a reno with two kids, but doing it with one and ending up massively in debt is not appealing either.

[Anonymous]

Talk to an architect. A construction professional will be able to tell you the cost of such an addition and you'll be able to make a decision based on the equity you have in the house, the cost of a loan and the added value to the property once you finish.
I provide that service to clients all the time. I also work with loan officers that provide options on financing.
Good luck!
ileana (yes, i am an architect)
ileanaschinder.com

[Anonymous]

Whatever you do, do on a permitted basis. Some buyers will check that.

[Anonymous]

As kids get older and bigger, you may want the extra space. I don't know what your situation is now, but I know that our house worked fine until our kids got big, then we felt a bit crammed in and moved to a larger house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk to an architect. A construction professional will be able to tell you the cost of such an addition and you'll be able to make a decision based on the equity you have in the house, the cost of a loan and the added value to the property once you finish.
I provide that service to clients all the time. I also work with loan officers that provide options on financing.
Good luck!
ileana (yes, i am an architect)
ileanaschinder.com

Thank you - I went to your site.

We've spoken at length to the builder/design firm we liked, though they mostly want us to commit before they will do much design work. I know that no one works for free, but its hard to even decide what to do without being able to see what it would look like. I don't know how I feel about forking over $3,500 to see whether or not I would hate are options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talk to an architect. A construction professional will be able to tell you the cost of such an addition and you'll be able to make a decision based on the equity you have in the house, the cost of a loan and the added value to the property once you finish.
I provide that service to clients all the time. I also work with loan officers that provide options on financing.
Good luck!
ileana (yes, i am an architect)
ileanaschinder.com

Thank you - I went to your site.

We've spoken at length to the builder/design firm we liked, though they mostly want us to commit before they will do much design work. I know that no one works for free, but its hard to even decide what to do without being able to see what it would look like. I don't know how I feel about forking over $3,500 to see whether or not I would hate our options.