Has your house been added on to?

[TraceyS/FL]

If you didn't do the addition - can you imagine what it was like to live there before it?

 

Does it flow? Would YOU have done the same thing?

 

LOL! I read in the other thread on how big your house is about someone wouldn't have done their addition like it was done.

 

OUrs has had 3.

 

1. Enclose the back patio. Apparently, what is now the front of my house was the back. A good portion of my Living room was a covered patio - there was a window in the kids room that looked out on it that is now a shallow bookshelf. At the time this was done - addition #2 hadn't been done, and I can't IMAGINE what it was like at all. Long and narrow is what it would have had to have been.

 

2. They added on a dining room and laundry room off the kitchen. That works well i think - although using some of the money to buy insulation for the walls would have been nice. I also would have made it about 1-2 feet longer. Again, i can't imagine the house without it - i've wondered if what we use at the sitting area by what would have been the front door wasn't a mini-dining room.

 

3. They converted the garage to a room. They managed to get a bathroom in there - nothing like being able to sit on the toilet to brush your teeth 'eh? LOL!! The space is wonderful to have, and i can't fix the one thing that needs to be fixed until we win lotto and can add a pool on. Then i can widen the doorway into it so it's not 24" wide.

 

I can say that all 3 contributed greatly to my love of my floorplan - there are some things lacking still (windows in the living area? apparently the slider they took out was the window - the solid front door doesn't work as well), but i wouldn't have bought the house without the additions.

 

SOOOO, i'd love to see/hear about your additions. What did they do right/wrong?

 

And don't tell me if i'm a freak for loving this kind of stuff - i can spend HOURS looking at house plans! :D

[Aggie]

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And don't tell me if i'm a freak for loving this kind of stuff - i can spend HOURS looking at house plans! :D

 

Freak here, too! I spent a good hour one night last week looking at floor plans with a very critical eye. And I love going into new homes, too! LOL

 

Our house is the farm house my parents bought when we moved here 30+yrs ago. My parents bought it knowing they wanted to renovate. They did renovate and added on a master suite. The house flows ok, but we have a walk-through kitchen that can get crowded.

 

And light! Between the garage off the kitchen and the covered deck off the dining area, most of the windows disappeared. Thankfully we live in the sticks and I don't have to have any window treatments. I put shades up in the summer to keep the hot sun from heating up the house, but they're down now.

 

If things were different, I would sit down with an architect and design my dream home. But we're not planning on building, so this one will work. :)

 

Aggie

[Tracey in TX]

We put on an addition 18 months ago. The back exterior doesn't look as "wow" now, but the interior actually looks better, more sunlight, and has such a normal flow that it's hard to believe it wasn't designed this way.

We wanted 2 additional bedrooms and a bath, so added approx 500 sq ft (small rooms) in the back upstairs where the attic was over garage. Only glitch was the upstairs carpeting is no longer made--and was only 6 months old, so the addition has a very similar, albeit not perfect match. During the building I changed my mind three times. One room was claustrophobic, so we raised the ceiling, reworked the air vents (b/c of bunk beds), and completely reshaped the second bedroom b/c of closet location change in first bedroom. And we added two windows which weren't planned. I like sunlight, so why not make the most of the westward facing walls/windows?!

 

I've heard horror stories about problems with additions, but it was less disruptive to our lives than remodeling the kitchen and replacing the flooring with hard wood. THAT was a hassle. I was homeschooling DS in kindergarten then, but we spent a lot of time out of house.

[RebeccaS]

As best as we can tell, ours has had two maybe three additions over the years. Originally, we believe the house was a two room log house (1819). We're not sure if our upstairs was an addition or part of the original house. We need to do some more investigating to find out. Our kitchen was added on sometime in the mid-late 1800's. We can tell it was later than the rest of the house because the original part is hand hewn logs and the kitchen is saw cut. Our keeping room is early 1980's. We have a magazine write up on the house because the owners that did the last addition went to great lengths to make it look like the rest of the house. If it were not for the modern furnishings, our house would look like it came from the early 1800's. I enjoy our additions frankly. I like having the bedrooms upstairs:D, my kitchen:D and even the keeping room is nice. The house is nice for space, but it's a lot to keep clean. If I owned the house back in the 80's when the last addition went in, I'm not so sure I would have done it. I probably would have made do with what I had. Also, not addition related, but our kitchen layout is really the pits. If I had lots of extra money I'd redo the whole kitchen. Gut that sucker and start over.

[Lorna in the boonies]

Ours has been added onto twice. With one of them, they knocked out a kitchen wall and added on our laundry room, master bedroom, and master bath. With the other one, they converted the garage into a room -- it now has our dining room at one end and the den at the other (it was only a single car garage).

 

I don't know how long ago these additions were done -- I do know that the bedroom was added prior to 1987 (the house was built in 1967).

 

It would have been very cramped without the additions (it's 1900 sf now, but was something like 1040 sf before). With the additions, it's just the right size for the 5 of us.

 

I really like the room that was the garage, but I think they messed up with the bedroom. It doesn't flow and is kind of awkward. Our room is like a cave at the tail end of the house -- plus, it's a very long trek to the kids' bedrooms, and I'd rather be closer to them for those middle of the night barfing sessions and such.;)

[Michelle T]

We took our house from 982 sq ft to 1625 sq ft, the construction started in June 2006, and finished in Jan 2007. We then gutted our backyard, and completely redid that too. That was from March 2007 to June 2007. My avatar is a tiny little picture of the back corner of our yard, where we have a 12' gazebo completely surrounded by rose bushes.

 

We added a large family room, and an extra bedroom. The addition flows beautifully, you would never know the house hadn't been planned this way. We had a great architect, he did a beautiful job, and our general contractor was just great to work with.

 

We knocked out the back wall of the house, mirrored an existing archway, and that leads right into the new living room. The new extra bedroom (used mainly as an exercise room, and DH's family stays there when they are in town) is directly behind the living room.

 

Our tiny kitchen used to have two half-walls that really made it feel smaller and boxed in. We tore those walls out, which makes the kitchen seem bigger, even though it really didn't change the actual size. We tore out our tiny pantry, which was only 12" wide, and put in a new one, which around 18" wide, still small, but at least I have a bit more room!

 

We spend most of our waking hours in the new living room. That's where our one TV and one computer are, comfy couch, giant bookcase, and comfy chair that usually has a cat sleeping on it.

 

We did run out of money before a few projects were completed. The new fireplace is still without tile, just a bare rectangle of concrete foundation in front of it. We didn't get the bathrooms redone as we had hoped, and we didn't move our washer/dryer into the garage. Maybe those things will be done eventually.

 

Our new backyard is fantastic, and we love to spend time out there. 50 rose bushes, gazebo, two fountains, vegetable garden, loads of flowers. I love gardening!

 

Unfortunately, the real estate market crashed right after we finished this project, and we now owe more on the house than it's worth. We are in Southern CA, a hard-hit area. Our mortgage is BIG and DH's income has fallen quite a bit in the last 1.5 years (he is a loan consultant). We decided to add on to our house (which we have lived in for 17 years) because at the time, it was cheaper to add on than to buy a new house. Now, of course, it would be cheaper to move, but as they say, hindsight is always 20/20. At any rate, we have no plans to move and may very well be in this house into our old age.

 

Anyway, sorry this is so long! We love our house, we love our backyard, we love our neighborhood. Despite the financial burden, we are still very glad we added on.

Michelle T

[Lisa in Jax]

It was built in the late 70s, and was a "T" shape. The previous owners added a den and Florida room onto the back of the house, making it the shape more like a + sign. The den was a good addition, though it left a window to nowhere above the kitchen sink, as well as a window from the den into the Florida room.

 

They also gutted the interior and redid all of the drywall, the whole kitchen, both bathrooms. They put in new carpet in the bedrooms, and tile in the rest of the house. They added a walk-in closet by bumping into the 2 car garage (leaving a 1 car garage). I wish they hadn't done that, frankly. It left the bedroom with a weird layout b/c the closet doors are in the middle of the wall where the bed ought to be. When they enlarged the master bath, they put the toilet across from the bathroom door, which means that the door hit you on the knees if it was opened while you sat on the toilet. I'd LOVE to redo my bathroom b/c of this.

 

About three years after we bought the house, we converted the Florida room into a bedroom. It was 10X22, so we had room to add a good-sized bathroom and closet at one end (and close off the window into the kitchen, and the window into the den, lol), leaving a 10X15 bedroom. This made our house a 4BR/3BA, which worked better for us, b/c our family was growing.

 

Two years later, we enclosed the garage to be a kids' play/tv room, and built a detached garage. I'm really glad we did this, b/c it allows us to put both cars in the garage, and gave us a bunch more storage.

 

After ds moves out (10 yrs from now), we'll probably convert my son's room and the guest room into a master suite and go back to a 3 BR house. We plan to stay here forever, so that makes more sense for us post-kids.

 

I also love to pour over house plans, etc. I could watch all those HGTV shows about house remodeling/selling/decorating all day long! ;-)

 

Lisa

[Carrie12345]

I'm a freak, too. I love house plans and additions.

 

This house hasn't had an addition, though we did consider doing one.

 

My parents had an addition put on out old house, and there had been a small addition before they bought it.

 

The original house was a 2bd/1ba cottage. You walked in to the dining room, which was open to the kitchen on the right. Straight through the dining room were the 2 bedrooms, with the bathroom tucked between the second bedroom and the kitchen. That was it. Maybe 600sq' or so.

 

The previous owner added a sunk-in living room to the left of the dining room, which spanned the depth of the house. Thank goodness!

 

My parents added a second floor. Master bedroom over the sunk-in living room, walk-in master closet, 2 more bedrooms, a second bathroom, and a small loft area.

Downstairs, the bedroom on the right became a new kitchen and the one on the left became a dining room. Former dining room became a foyer, and former kitchen became the staircase.

They also added a deck.

 

The only thing my parents regretted was putting skylights in the stairwell and the second bathroom. When they began leaking, everyone we met would tell us that those types of skylights *always leak.

 

Their best decision was to open the wall between the living room and the new foyer/dining room. From the upper area, it was a 1/2 wall, so you could look down from above. And it let a lot of light in.

 

The whole thing was very light and airy without feeling like it was one great big room (which is how my house feels.)

[JFSinIL]

We had two bedrooms and a bath added....in 1925, to this 1900ish house. OK - we did not do the work ;) although we benefit from it. It took a chunk out of the backyard, and the dining room lost it's window overlooking the backyard (although a second window was added on the side wall.) A basement room was also added in 1925.

 

I'd like to take some of the deep closet space from the small bedroom of the addition and add it to the teensy weensy shower stall that previous owners added to the powder room to make it a "full" bath. Someday.

[Sparkle]

We made an "addition" to ours - we converted our garage to a bedroom, bath and hall. We took out the fireplace/chimney that was in the living room and made that the entrance to the garage (now hall). There are folding doors that separate the new rooms from the living room. It's not ideal, but in practicality it works just fine, and it doesn't scream "addition!". We'd like to add on another bedroom/bath to the back of our house but that will definitely be more problematic.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

Our 70yo house had an addition along the back of it put on around 60 years ago.

 

A room with a half bath was attached to the master bedroom to be used as a nursery. The door to the extra room is where the window used to be. We use it as a home office/sewing room.

 

A mudroom/laundry room was attached to the kitchen. The kitchen door used to be the back door of the house, now it leads into the mud room which has a door that is now our back door.

 

Between the extra room and the mudroom, and right behind the main bathroom, a oil heated boiler/furnace was put in and the addition area was built around it. The boiler is huge and made of cast iron in one piece, there is literally no way to get it out of there without tearing the house apart. The bathroom window was not removed and now looks into the boiler room instead of the back yard.

 

I can't imagine what the house must have been like before the addition. First of all there was no central heat or laundry room. There is evidence that the original owners had a small wood stove in their bedroom. There was also a wood stove and a cement sink in room on the side of the garage. That was where laundry was done.

[Laura Corin]

Our house was originally a small Victorian one-storey cottage. It encompassed what is now the dining room, corridor and three bedrooms (although the furthest bedroom was some kind of storage shed, and may have been an earlier farm building). The front door entered straight into the (current) dining room.

 

An eat-in kitchen and utility room were added some time in the 1970s. It's fine, but a little bigger (to make a little separation between kitchen and breakfast room) would have been good. That made the house into an 'L' shape.

 

Ten years ago, a sitting room was added on the far side of the dining room (making the house into a 'T' shape), the front door was moved around (still entering the same room, but through another wall) and a porch/entry hall was added. At the same time, a fourth bedroom was built at the end of the corridor. I like the sitting room a lot, although there was a missed opportunity for putting in a south-facing window. I would have made a more definite separation between entry area and dining room; I am wondering if we can do anything about that now. Temporarily, we will have a book shelf as a notional dividing line between the two areas.

 

There is an opportunity to open up the loft into a family room. We plan on doing that if we ever have any money.

 

Laura

Edited November 5, 2008 by Laura in China

[Kay in Cal]

We just moved to a new house that has been added to (back in the 60s, I think). We love it!

 

The Basic Plan: Living, Family, Kitchen, Three bedrooms, Two baths

 

Small entry way has doors to left and right--one leads to living room, one leads to family room, kitchen is straight ahead behind the wall, in between to two big rooms. We are using them as a living/dining room and a school/play room. The three bedrooms and two baths are off a small hallway that comes forward off the family room.

 

The addition: Office (spare bedroom), Bathroom

 

From the back of the family room a door to the patio was changed to a door to a small entry, the door to the patio now being to the left, and then a door straight ahead to an office. The office is great--built in desk and shelves, separate bath, we can use it as a guest bedroom . I love that it is large and light and that there are TWO doors in between it and the rest of the house--one to the back entry, then another into the family room. I'm not a big fan of super open plans--I like lots of doors so that I can cocoon in silence even when my LOUD kids are home. It is fantastic for dh to get writing done in there, and great for guests because they have a private bath, noise protection, and can even go outside without going through the house.

[Guest Lorna]

Our house (built in the 1820s) has a coach house which has been made a part of the house proper. It has its own separate kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and sitting room. I wish it wasn't there. We don't use it. I store a few science things in the kitchen cupboards and iron in there occasionally, but we don't heat it and I would feel cosier without it.

The house is just rented though so it doesn't bother us much. We see it as a bit of a folly, although previous tenants have used it for housekeepers and nannies.