Adding a bedroom and bathroom to a house (mortgage, neighborhoods)

[johngolf]

Thinking

The first thing you want to do is hire an architect to design it.

[sawyer2]

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

Although we have by no means decided on this route with certainty, the way we see it is that this would give us the best chance to get into one of our top choice towns (Winchester/Belmont/Lexington/Arlington) within our budget ($1.5M)*. Delaying the expansion by a few years would give us a bit of time to rebuild our savings, and if we get raises at work in that timeframe then we'd be all the more comfortable with the costs.

We did a third floor reno. in Belmont - added guest bedroom, bathroom, home office, heating, cooling etc. and it was definitely worth it. The town was fine to work with - firm and to the letter of code but fair. Smaller lots in town means more restrictions if you want to expand but we were ok - did not need a variance.

However, we are are serial renovators and we buy the ugliest house/condo in the better neighborhoods. It is not for the faint of heart, and even worse with kids, pets running around.

I would still advise you to buy the house that meets your needs and not renovate if you can at all avoid it. We did it pre-COVID and from conversations I have had with some trades, it would cost about 2X today and take at least 2X longer. Also, you will get 'zipcoded' in these towns on pricing but I enjoy the haggling/bidding process, and finding subs from far away that are hungrier for the right price.

[sawyer2]

Originally Posted by Jwelder93

I just finished putting a second floor onto my house in Peabody. We added 3 bedrooms to the existing two, and we didn’t spend any days out of the house. Granted, it was hard when the roof was fully off and open in the middle of summer, the AC did overtime this summer. It was costly but it was done for what I’d assume at a bigger discount than others would charge. We paid around $95,000.

That was incredibly cheap for a full 2nd floor add-on in this market.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

Thanks for the tips, OutdoorLover. Just curious what home design software is that?
:
:

Home Designer Pro - it's about $500 and is amazingly good for the price - very extensive capabilities. This is used by many builders and contractors. It's produced by the company Chief Architect, and the professional architects tend to use the $3,000 Chief Architect Premier. I suspect that Home Designer Pro actually shares a lot of the same code libraries and they've just neutered the cheaper app to keep it from competing directly with the top-of-the line app. The two applications can exchange CAD files, and if your architect/designer uses Chief Architect, and you have some fair capacity yourself, you can collaborate on the CAD design through these apps. A word of warning, even Home Designer Pro requires quite a bit of learning to use effectively - and I am a PhD physical scientist with extensive modeling experience saying that, but you can always go for the trial download and see how you make out.

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/#products

[BruinsGirl]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

It's good to think things through, but in reality how many 3BR houses in these towns are on lots big enough for an addition and will be for sale this year?.

Agree. We had to rebuild after fire fast we discovered many limitations. For example even simple change from existing carport to garage needed town approval. We have good sized lot, but apparently our 1964 house was 2 feet too close to the road (38 ft, not 40) and 1.5 feet too close to our neighbors. In fact any changes even to add 1 more story and move deck needed approval. Which included town sending letters to all our neighbors and hearing later.

[GeoffD]

With two children in a 3 bedroom house, you could put visitors up at the Ritz-Carlton and come out ahead compared to the cost of adding a 4th bedroom.

8’ X 10’ is totally reasonable for an office. It’s a heck of a lot easier to add that than a master bedroom suite.

[gf2020]

Just buy a house. Any house.

The reality is, most people only stay in their first house less than 7 years, so don't try and find the perfect house for the rest of your life right now. Desires and requirements change.

As for adding an addition, sure, anything is possible with enough time and money, but you don't need to plan for that right now. People add on because they decide they love their location or other factors, they don't typically buy a house with the assumption that they will have to add on.

Children share bedrooms all the time, don't overthink things.

Prices continue to accelerate and every day you spend looking for a house is another day not spent living in a house.

[hunter111]

To answer your question about siblings sharing bedrooms, I think they can do so comfortably until they are around 9-12. I have a 10yo and an 11yo sharing a room and it is not great. They are at the age where they crave privacy and a place to pursue their own interests without a sibling interrupting. I wish I'd been able to separate them when they were about 9. (Before then they loved the company.) Now, I think they are driving each other totally bananas and our household will be more peaceful when I can get each into her own space. So, when the oldest hits nine, it's time to think about separate rooms.

I'm also hoping to add on a bedroom over the garage for just this reason and am following this conversation with considerable interest. Moving is not an option for us. We love our neighborhood and have no desire to go through the expense and trouble of moving everything we own.

[thinkingotherthings]

Thanks to everyone for your continued responses, although I haven't had a chance to respond to each individually I've been reading all of them. It seems that the prevailing opinion is to avoid this route if possible.

Originally Posted by hunter111

To answer your question about siblings sharing bedrooms, I think they can do so comfortably until they are around 9-12. I have a 10yo and an 11yo sharing a room and it is not great. They are at the age where they crave privacy and a place to pursue their own interests without a sibling interrupting. I wish I'd been able to separate them when they were about 9. (Before then they loved the company.) Now, I think they are driving each other totally bananas and our household will be more peaceful when I can get each into her own space. So, when the oldest hits nine, it's time to think about separate rooms.

I'm also hoping to add on a bedroom over the garage for just this reason and am following this conversation with considerable interest. Moving is not an option for us. We love our neighborhood and have no desire to go through the expense and trouble of moving everything we own.

Thanks hunter for the insight on this, good to know that they should be alright sharing a room for ~9 years.

[Jwelder93]

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

Good points chicagoliz.



Thanks for that perspective Jwelder. Wow, adding 3 bedrooms for $95K!? That doesn't sound bad at all. I assume the towns I'm targeting might be a little bit more expensive for construction work, but if we could add 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom for under 150K that would be great value I think.

How long did it take to get your expansion done? And specifically how much time did the pre-work take (planning, permits, designs, etc.) vs how much time did it take from when the construction actually started?

I think in turn for getting it so cheap, we evened out with the constant arguments. He was a terrible contractor and he knew he bid too cheap, but we already agreed and had a contract with no contingency. But all in all it took about 8 months. He was a brother in law to a good friend of mine, he’s a licensed contractor and licensed electrician so he helped us on price for those things and all we needed was his plumber. Beginning we got the plans drawn in January/February of 2020. Deposit given in March and permits shortly followed. Work didn’t begin until late May 2020. I did a lot of the demo myself and some other odds and ends to make the beginning easy. It was a shell and weather tight in about a week or two.

Interior framing took like a day, electrical was a day or two and then finish details took a few more weeks when materials were ready. So we wrapped up in mid August.

Again, this contractor was just terrible at running a business but his subs and work he’s done was actually very good. I know we got it for less than some would charge, but 250-400k to do this work is ridiculous. I’d say if we had another big company do it, maybe around 130-150k but it really depends on finishes and size of company.