So Denis and I have been talking about our future in this house, and what would make it a better house that we’re more likely to stay in longer.
Yes, we’ve talked about about building an addition onto our house.
Our house is a dainty 1,885 square foot house. 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, finished attic space, pit of a basement. We have stripped the wallpaper and painted, ripped up the carpets on the main floor and redone the hardwoods, we have put in extra cabinets in the kitchen, and we also plan on putting up ceiling tiles in the dining room and hanging our new chandelier. At this point, after 3 1/2 year in this joint, I’m pretty content.
However (and isn’t there almost always a “however”). If there’s one thing this house needs, it’s a tv room. Right now our front room (at 12×19) is both the living room and the tv room as well as the room where we have our White Elephant parties every year. We average 25 people at that party, and it’s always a little tight in our living room trying to squeeze everyone in and still be comfortable.
My parents’ tv room is about 20×20 and is the ideal room for parties. That’s what I want. A party room that can also be a tv/hang out room. A room that when there’s 8 people in there still feels open and not cramped in the slightest.
So Denis and I, when discussing the future in this house, think it would be nice to take off the sunroom on the back of the house (CootieGirl’s playroom) and build a 20×20 room. We would open up the kitchen to that room and make it a bit more updated and open, and would be able to spread out a bit more (my dream: a kitchen island with seating area).
Denis found out that a guy he works with that lives around the corner from us put 2 bedrooms and a full bath on his house at a pretty reasonable price and in a short amount of time. So now I’m thinking this addition idea might actually WORK.
And in talking to some other people the suggestion came to go ahead and put in a finished basement in the addition – some quoting a price as low as $5,000 for them to dig just a bit lower in order to have good headroom in the basement. TWO rooms? That would be sweet.
So who knows – in a couple years you might start seeing some posts about architecture, floor plans, contractors and “where did I pack the deep fryer?”…
I agree that a family room would be a good addition – and that area near the kitchen is ideal. I’ve long thought you should finish the basement, but you are using it for good storage space, so that’s a toss up.
Oooh – we are planning an addition as well, hopfully 600 sq ft on our 1100sq ft 3 bed/1 bath ranch. We figured it out to be approx $42K. Eeek.
We can’t finish off our old basement because the ceilings are already too low and finishing it would require that even *I* stoop a bit to move around down there.
The NEW basement area that would be under the added tv room would be the finished basement area and I’d connect it to the old basement with steps and a door. If that’s even possible. I’d have to find that out from the architect/contractor.
Kate – it is definitely expensive to build on, but worth it in the end since your house will almost certainly appreciate in value (especially living in NJ as we both do).
Yes we discussed this, but these are all Jaynee’s ideas, not mine. I’m just going along for the ride. We’ll have to come up with $50-100k first.
Jaynee has the gift for planning. It’s a good plan, mind you, and it’s something else you can pray about~ for more space and for more contentedness in the meantime.
my wife and i contemplated moving, but all the new houses around where we live are starting at half a mil. so we’re staying put but doing various upgrades to our home as well.
we had recessed lighting installed in every room, so we could get rid of our end table lamps and our halogen lamp from our college days. then i fixed up our garage by installing raised cabinets. and now we are upgrading our kitchen counter from a tile counter to a dupont corian countertop with a seemless integrated sink. 🙂 installers come tomorrow to rip out our counter and sink to take back to their shop. 9 whole days without a kitchen counter and sink…ugh.
anyways, good luck with the home improvements.