You can increase the value of small rooms by creating the illusion of spaciousness to make your home seem larger than it really is. Sometimes, however, the need for additional space is so necessary that physically reshaping your house or enlarging it may be required.
The approaches for manipulating space or supplementing it range from the simple to the complex. Because new construction always requires some destruction, think long and hard about what you need, what you can afford and what, in terms of household turmoil, you can put up with. Then do only what you absolutely need to do to get the results you want.
Houses are intricately assembled structures, and altering them means reversing the process to some extent. Some walls are load-bearing walls (that is, they support the roof or the second floor) and cannot be removed easily. Even in non-load-bearing walls, you may encounter plumbing, heating and electrical lines that will have to be rerouted. If a wall doesn`t contain any surprises, it`s still attached to a floor and a ceiling, both of which will have to be patched when the wall is removed.
Sometimes the solution to the space problem is simple. Build floor-to-ceiling bookcases or a multipurpose wall unit to incorporate storage for books, electronic equipment, indirect lighting, a liquor cabinet, even a desk. These can be custom-made by a carpenter or cabinetmaker or bought in modular units from furniture dealers. Stock kitchen cabinets and cupboards, which come in a variety of styles and finishes, can create an attractive storage wall.
Merging contiguous spaces-the kitchen and the dining room, for example-can improve your home`s livability. It used to be that the ideal home was one that had a room for every purpose. Today, the trend is toward multipurpose rooms, spaces that perform more than one function and that are visually open to one another. By removing interior walls entirely or substituting half-height walls or counters, you can create what amounts to a suite that meets multiple needs and eliminates the sense of isolation that separate rooms promote.
ADAPTING THE ATTIC
Survey the uninhabited zones in and around your house. Orphan spaces such as attics, basements and garages are the raw material for additional living space. Most houses have a surprising amount of space that can be annexed, adapted and altered.
Depending upon the pitch of your roof and the distance from the floor to the roof`s peak, an attic can become a den or a spacious master bedroom/bath suite requiring only interior structural changes. Of course, a stairway may mean manipulating the rooms below. To keep costs down, locate the new upstairs bathroom directly over the downstairs bath so plumbing lines can come straight up.
A basement, or even part of a basement, can be converted into a family room, guest room or home office. However, unless your house is on a site that will allow you to have a walk-out basement, with sliding glass doors or French doors that open onto a patio, you`re probably better off turning to the attic. Also, just in terms of payback at resale time, finished attics are considered by buyers to be bonus rooms, whereas a basement-finished or not-is still looked upon as a basement.
If you have an attached garage, you already have the shell of a new living space. Especially in areas where lot sizes prohibit making an addition to the house, the garage can be the next best thing. If you don`t want to sacrifice the garage, think about putting on a second story. For one-story garages attached to two-story houses, the new room can be married almost seamlessly to the old.
The tricky part about building a new room atop a garage is that most garage ceilings are not designed to withstand the weight of a new floor. Usually, reinforcing or replacing the existing joists before putting up new walls and a roof is all that`s required. Naturally, that route will boost the cost, but it`s still often cheaper than adding a brand-new room because the foundation is already in place.
A covered porch is also a room in waiting. Sometimes you can transform it into a year-round room just by enclosing it with prefabricated sliding glass doors, fixed French doors or a combination of standard stud walls, doors and windows.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
If you feel you must commit yourself and your money to a new room addition, consider the following points.
First, add up what you`ll spend on the addition plus your profits on the sale of your existing house. It`s usually smarter-in economic terms-to move to a larger home. But the monetary difference may be overshadowed by an attachment to a neighborhood or even the house itself or the local school system.
Second, some additions will add to the value of your house and others won`t. A house can be too big for the kinds of buyers usually attracted to your neighborhood. Don`t price yourself out of the market.
You may get some or even all of your money back at sale time if you build a new kitchen or enlarge an old one, or add a bedroom or a family room-all of which are in demand among buyers. But you probably won`t profit by adding a den to a house that already has a family room.
Not that economics is the ruling factor of home ownership. Besides, not all room additions have to be extensive or expensive. Building on a lean-to sunroom, comprised of prefabricated components, or even a greenhouse room, usually costs less than a conventional carpenter-built room.
Building up by adding a second story to a one-story house also can be more economical than new on-the-ground construction because the foundation is there and most first-floor ceiling joists can support a new living space. Also, extending utilities up is usually less difficult than extending them horizontally.
Finally, if you`ve got the land and the financial resources, building on a new room addition or even a new wing is the one surefire way to gain more living space without compromising the function or look of other rooms in the house. The ultimate goal is to make the addition, from both inside and outside, look as if it has always been there. But, make sure you put the project into the hands of a qualified architect.
If you`re planning on adding more physical space to your home or just rearranging existing spaces, take plenty of time to think the project through and to establish some priorities. You may think calling in an interior designer or an architect is just one more cost, but these professional space planners can envision solutions that you may not have considered and, in the end, may save you from making an expensive mistake. –
Michael Walsh owns a designer referral service.
