What to Know About Home Additions – Whether you have lived in your home for decades or just bought it, a home addition may be on your mind. This major remodeling undertaking can turn your home into something totally new, making it something that works far better for your lifestyle.
Adding on to your home can be a great way to increase the value of it, but this is not a guarantee. Before embarking on a home addition project, there are a few questions you should ask yourself.
What to Know About Home Additions
Can I live in the home during the construction?
Proper planning is key for a successful remodeling project. Take a moment to consider whether you will be able to live in your home while construction is taking place, or if you should plan and budget for a rental or hotel during all or part of the addition project.
Many people find that the noise, dust, and mess is more of an issue than they expected. There are ways to work around this to save cash, but make sure you are up for the challenge.
If you work from home, consider a temporary alternative to your home office, like a short term office lease, a coffee shop, or a local co-working space.
If your addition involves taking apart or blocking off your kitchen, plan ahead for the time the kitchen will be unusable. A few tips to make this doable include:
- Prepping meals ahead of time that can be frozen and reheated
- Setting up a temporary kitchen elsewhere in the house, with a coffee pot, microwave, hot plate, slow cooker, or other small kitchen appliances
- Planning to eat out
- Equipping your laundry room or bathroom sink with dish soap, a sponge, and a drying rack as an alternative dish washing space
What home additions add the most value to the home?
Some additions will add more value to your home than others. There are two types of value that an addition offers: personal and financial. Personal value is added when the home because more enjoyable or functional for your household. This has nothing to do with how much the home will sell for, and everything to do with how much more you like your home with the addition.
For example, the addition of a sunroom that you never use may add financial value, but not much personal value. On the other hand, making your master closet larger through an addition may be a virtually life changing remodel for you, while adding minimal equity to the home.
Both personal and financial value are important in a remodel; the ideal scenario offers both.
Additions that are known to add financial value to a home include kitchens, mudrooms, bathrooms, sunrooms, and home offices. If you do not expect to stay in your home forever, keep resale value in mind. A larger kitchen, an additional bathroom, or another bedroom that can double as an office space or playroom are all tried and true ways to increase the revalue of your home.
By adding not just square footage, but essential functional space, taking your home from 3 bedrooms 2 bathroom to 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms will put it into an entirely different category drawing a different set of buyers. A similar increase in square footage that only adds living space may not have the same effect.
Can I DIY my addition?
While some people, with the right skills and enough time to spare, can DIY home additions, many should not. This is a project that will likely involve every aspect of construction. Making sure the addition is fully permitted and up to code is essential for both the quality of the work and to avoid future issues with resale.
To get started finding the right professionals to help with the job, contact us. We would love to help you make your house into a home you love even more. Call us for all home additions.
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