Adding an addition and remodel

[CadyRidah]

Any home builders or remodelers in here? This is somewhat garage related but more home related. Would it be cheaper to buy a new land and build a new house or remodel and make additions to my current home? I want a bigger home and also really want to extend the 2 car garage to make it deeper and also widen it to make it a 3 car garage. For the home I want to build on top of the garage and add an addition to the rear side of the my 2 story home. I have a lot of ideas of what I want to do if I remodel but I am more worried on what would be cheaper. I figured remodeling would be easier cause I won't have to move or worry about selling the house. How much does it normally cost to do a remodel? How is it priced? Is it by sq. ft.? What do you guys recommend? If there's a cheaper way of doing this please let me know. Thanks!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Building new may depend on the price you can get for you present home and what new construction and land is going for in your area.

As far as building over the garage, you run into the problem that the garage walls are probably not constructed for a two story building and you will have to either do floor joisting for a fairly long clear span or put in posts. You are almost going to have to rebuild the garage from scratch.

Charles

 

[ron thompson]

10 years ago I bought a $100,000 house and put $80,000 worth of improvements in it. Now it's worth way more than I have in it. I did most of the work myself. If you're going to pay to have it done, move. It will never pay off. I tore off the brick, removed and replaced all of the windows and doors, added on both ends, put a porch on the front, rebricked, etc, etc, etc. Now my house is beautiful and looks like it was built yesterday. It doesn't look added on or remodeled. That's the key. Planning is the key.

 

[Der Bugmeister]

Sounds like what I'm about to do, Ron. Just got the prelim drawings back tonight...lotta work ahead of me.

We figured that by the time we paid legal fees, real estate fees, this fee, that fee, utilities, moving and all the rest of that uproar, we might as well just renovate. We like our neighbourhood, lot, house (mostly), so it was a fairly easy choice.

 

[ron thompson]

Der Bugmeister, just remember, it's hard, frustrating and trying at times, but hang in there. The hard work is worth it. It will end.