Home additions can be great for adding space and comfort to a house. But how can you tell if this is the right step for you and your family?

Keep these tips in mind and your home will make you happy for years…

Your Family is Getting Larger
This is probably the most common reason for adding a new room or section to the home: a growing family. Whether you have a newborn on the way or teenagers need their own personal space, as a family grows, the house seems to shrink. Adding a new addition to the home can give you an extra bedroom, a new play area, larger family room, or a comfortable office where you can work in peace and quiet. If your family is growing, maybe a new addition would be right for your family.

Remodeling, Redesign, or Reorganization Won’t Cover Your Needs
While a home addition could be the right option, you should first consider less-expensive and time-consuming options. Take the time to look at basic remodeling options for your home and see if these are viable. For example, if you need a new bedroom, is there space in the basement that can be converted? If you want a larger living room, it there a wall that could be moved to expand the space. Make sure you take a look at all possible options before committing to a home addition. This is one step where you should certainly consult a remodeling and home-addition professional.

You Need More Garage Space
If you’ve added a new vehicle, a boat, or maybe a few ATVs that you want to store in your garage, but you simply don’t have the space, a home addition could help. You don’t want to store these items outside where they could be damaged, so if your property has the space, maybe adding a new stall to your garage or a shed addition would be the right choice.

You Need a Home Office
If you work from home, you understand how hard it is to stay focused and disciplined. It sounds great, but working from the kitchen table (and actually being productive) can be rough, especially when the kids are home and distraction lurks around every corner. If you can’t convert an existing room into a personal office, a home addition might be the right option. Perhaps a new wing of the house, building over the garage, or an attic or basement conversion could give you the space you need to separate from the chaos and get down to business.

There is No Basement Space to Finish
When you need to add space for an office or a bedroom, the first place to consider is the basement. Many homes have unfinished space in the basement, and these can usually be converted into the perfect room for your needs. If you’re adding a bedroom, you’ll need egress windows and other safety features. However, a basement finishing project can help you avoid the potentially-larger price of a home addition. But when there’s no basement space, a home addition is often the next viable choice.

You Like Where You Live
Moving is always an option, but sometime you just like where you live. In this case, it makes sense to add a home addition as opposed to shopping the housing market. Perhaps you love the neighborhood, maybe your children are thriving at their current schools, perhaps you can walk to work! Whatever your reason, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to stay in your current home.

Building Your Personal Dream Home
If you’re at the point in your life when you’re ready for a home that is taylor-made for your lifestyle, then a home addition could be perfect. You can add the bar and lounge you’ve always dreamed of or the craft room you’ve wanted for decades. Personal happiness is, in our humble opinion, the most important reason to have a home addition!

Remember These Important Home Addition Tips
If you decide that a home addition is the right choice, keep these tips in mind, as they will make the building process and the long-term results much better…

Prepare for Inconveniences
A home addition is not a quiet process, so be prepared for pounding hammers, screaming circular saws, and rumbling machinery. This noise will disrupt your life and can lead to distraction and annoyance. A professional remodeling team will obviously do their best to keep loud noises to a minimum, but during the construction process, they are simply unavoidable.

You’ll also need to think about how your living space will be affected. For example, if you are expanding a kitchen’s exterior wall, how will you prepare meals while the project is being completed? If you are adding to a bedroom, how will sleeping situations be adjusted? You may also need to have your pets kenneled so they are out of the way. All of these details should be considered before construction begins. Talk with your contractor for advice on these important but potentially over-looked steps.

Avoid “Over-Building” the Neighborhood
The concept of “over-building” is related to home prices and reselling, but it’s something you should consider, even if you plan on living in the home for another 10 years. Over-building simply refers to expanding and remodeling a home so much that it significantly out-prices all the other homes in the neighborhood.

You don’t want to expand your home so much that it’s potential value is far exceeds other homes in the neighborhood. Why? Because you’ll likely never recoup your investment. Sinking too much money into a home where the market or the location can’t support the price means it’s possible you won’t recover your entire investment. But again, this won’t be an issue until you sell.

How can you tell if you’re overbuilding? If your house will be twice as large as the other homes, if you have twice the amount of bedrooms than the neighborhood average, or if the home addition project will essentially eliminate the backyard, you may be over-doing it.

That said, over-building only becomes a problem when you want to sell, so if a larger home with new bedrooms and an expanded garage will make you happy for the next 10 – 20 years, then by all means go for it! After all, the ultimate goal is to love your home!

Get Professional Home Addition Services

Let us help give your house the perfect home addition.

When you are ready to grow your space alongside your family, call the professional team at New Outlooks Construction!