Want an extra bedroom or a larger kitchen? If you’re considering expanding, here’s what you must know.
EVEN BEFORE STEVE & CHERYL SIGNED THEIR PURCHASE AGREEMENT IN 2008, THEY KNEW THE HOME THEY’D FOUND IN BERKLEY WASN’T LIVING UP TO ITS POTENTIAL DESPITE ITS IDEAL LOCATION. “IT WAS IN AN AREA WHERE IT’S HARD TO FIND AFFORDABLE HOMES,” SAYS STEVE, AT FORD MOTOR COMPANY. “WE KNEW IT WAS A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD TO GET INTO. TIGHTKNIT, LOTS OF YOUNG FAMILIES, LOTS OF RENOVATIONS GOING ON.” BUT AT JUST 1,100 SQUARE FEET, THE THREE-BEDROOM HOUSE WAS TOO SMALL. “WE KNEW WE NEEDED MORE ROOM.”
The solution? An Addition.
“In the fall of 2012,” says Steve, “we expanded off the top of the house, putting a living room downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs with two bathrooms. That let us turn the smallest bedroom into a playroom and the old master into a spare bedroom-slash-office.” In the next five to 10 years, they plan to add a dormer to the back roof to open up enough floor space to create a open kitchen and entertainment area. The finished product, Steve says, will give them exactly what they want, where they want it, for a price they can afford. “We bought the house for $130,000,” he says, “and figured we’d spend $50,000 on each addition. We looked at homes nearby in the $200,000 price range, and there wasn’t anything that compared to it.” "Now we have the home exactly the way we want and its worth about what we have into it."
In a bedroom community with smaller properties, like Berkley, an addition can increase the value of your house, says Gerald Maliszewski, an agent with RE/MAX in the Hills. “I don’t think you’d get 100 percent of your money back,” he says, “but maybe 75 percent, and your house won’t sit on the market for long.” Of course, an addition is not for someone who’s planning to leave any time soon. “It allows you to customize the house to what you want,” says Maliszewski, “It’s hard to put a price on personal enjoyment.”
Still, building an addition can seem like a daunting prospect — especially if you plan to do some of the work yourself or even act as your own general contractor. Here, what you need to know to get started.
1) Assess Your True Needs
Sometimes the answers are obvious, but other times it takes awhile to decide what is and is not working for you. For a kitchen remodel, for example, Do you entertain while preparing meals? Do you have kids sitting in here a lot? Does mail tend to pile up in the corner? Even if you think you know what you want, bringing in a consultant may make sense. It’s dangerous to go into a renovation not having explored all of those things. The day of giant additions has come and gone, particularly with money tight and downsizing trendy. People are still interested in creating common space in the form of family rooms or adding first-floor master suites with retirement in mind, but many also opt just to bump out the kitchen a bit or building a rec room over the garage while attaching it to the main structure via a breezeway.
2) Hire Professionals
Once you’ve settled on a vision and how much you want to spend, enlist the services of an architect. Even if you know exactly what you want and can sketch out a decent approximation, you’ll need someone who can do the drawings that must be filed with your building department. Your architect will also know the zoning regulations of the city you live in, including setbacks (how far a structure must be from property lines and other features) and maximums for height and square footage. If what you’re looking for falls outside the regulations, you will have to change your plan or apply for a variance. Joe Novitzky, of JSN Architecture in Berkley, has been the greatest source of information for our clients. He has the ability to make sure that everything has been thought of including how the room will flow.
3) Plan For Chaos
Doing an addition can be “extraordinarily disruptive,” even though good contractors try to contain the upheaval as much as possible by setting up Porta-Pottys, sealing off abutting windows to minimize dust, and making sure to clean up the work area before they leave for the day. Try in advance to get organized. Kitchen additions can be particularly unsettling because they inevitably involve the concurrent tearing apart of the existing kitchen. With a kitchen, the first thing I tell people is try to set up another area with a microwave and a fridge. A lot of families do renovations in the summertime because they can barbecue and stay out of the house more.
Steve said "our first addition off the top of the house was a little troublesome because we had to tear down existing walls and our options were to move in with parents for a few months or make much better use of our basement. In the end though, the few months of inconvenience was well worth it." "We love the house and get compliments all the time,"said Cheryl.
