We are still looking for a house.
One is for sale at a great price in a nice wooded
area but it VERY tiny!! I was wondering about
how much it would cost to add another bedroom.
Anyone even done this? WE looked at 2 homes on Sat. The one was a DUMP!! The other was really cute but you are smack up beside all the other
neighbors and kids were evrywhere. I mean some neighbor kids are fine but this neighbor hood
looked like a daycare!! I am starting to get worried we may never find a house!

By Mommyof4 on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 02:47 pm:

We have not done an addition but this past fall we remodeled our basement...made 4 windows egress windows made two large rooms into 4 rooms (3 bedrooms and a family room). A good portion of our basement was already finished and the cost was about 22,000 but almost half of that was the windows. I can tell you that it was a MAJOR pain. We had drywall dust everywhere and the basement was virtually unlivable..was also put in new carpet upstairs at the same time the construction was going on downstairs and so everything we owned was *moved* at some point. We did the remodeling because we thought it would be easier than trying to sell the house and buy one with more bedroom....we were wrong. My advice would be if you have the time take it and find a house that fits all if not a vast majority of your needs for the long run.

Good luck..house hunting is fun but stressful!

By Babysitbarb on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 02:55 pm:

We did a add on to our living room about three years ago and it cost around $10,000. We actaully took a porch and opened it up and made it more living room. Like 6 ft more onto the living room and also extended our coat closet.It might have been cheaper if we had done the finished work our selves but, we did that when we built our house and we had decided we would only do it if we had someone do the whole job. We thought we would get more use out of adding to the living room then adding another family room and we do but, now here we are three years later still wanting the sunroom/family room.

By Amyj on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 03:02 pm:

We just added on a family room, office, master bed and bath. We turned our daughter's room into a dressing room and walk in closet. You have to go through the dressing room to get to our new bedroom. It has taken us a year to do this and we are still working on things (painting, tile work, window treatments...). Most additions and remodels seem to run about $30 per sq. ft. I guess it would be different depending on having to pour a foundation and roughing in plumbing. Good luck! I can be alot of work, but fun too!

By Amyj on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 03:05 pm:

I just read what I wrote! I ment that it can be alot of work, but fun too! Now that I think of it, I can be alot of work!

By Texannie on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 03:27 pm:

We haven't done it personally, but it's very common around here. I think it really depends on where you live. Here it's between $80-$100 per square foot.

By Coopaveryben on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 03:37 pm:

My parents added on a bedroom about 15 years ago and it was about 15,000 then (it was a big bedroom too, not certain of the square feet). I know things are cheaper here than they are there so I don't know if this will help.

By Vbw1978 on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 03:53 pm:

we did alot of addons to our housr (we got it super cheap) my husband (soon to be) does ALOT of contruction (working on his architecual degree almost there) we added 1 room turned our 2 car garage into 2 more rooms 1 playroom & 1 office, we have started builing another garage on the west side of the house (been about 4 months now) but with the wedding have run into cost problems for the material (usually he brings alot home from work (scrap) & works just fine)....... to date we have spent about $13,000 - 14,000 -- which is mainly buying doors & windows to put in ....
IT IS SOOOO MESSY though -- i hated the construction but it is all worth it in the long run

By Colette on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 04:25 pm:

We had a 2 bedroom, 2 closet tiny cape and completely remodeled and added on. I knew what we wanted for space but it was very hard to visualize and I definately didnt want to have it "look" like an addition. We ended up hiring an architect and we are very pleased with the results

By Trisa on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 08:14 am:

Thanks all. I am still stewing about what to
do. It is so close to hubbys work. The town that his company is moving to is a very bad town.
The schools are bad as well so we are having to look in other areas. So far the only homes that
are for sale in our price range are a 50 min drive to and from work for him. I hate to have
him do that forever the poor guy. We still have not even looked at this house. The realtor keeps telling us it will be way to small for us and that we could never do an addition for 12000.
Someone here told me its $45 a square foot.
I will keep you posted. Nothing new has come up
on the new listings. Man this is driving me crazy!

By Familyman on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 11:45 am:

The big question is how much can you do. Reaslisticly, how much work can you do yourself on it. We put a 500 sq ft two bedroom second story addition on our house last year (still working on it, a year later) and including re-roofing the whole house it ran us about $8000. However, we did the WHOLE thing ourselves. We got friends and family to help with a big weekend of framing and I did the plumbing, electrical, interior framing, roofing, drywall (should be done soon) and everything. I even built my first set of stairs, pretty cool. The only thing we're going to pay for is carpet when it gets to that point.
To pay to have this done would have been $30-40K. So we did it cheaper but it's going to take us 18-24 months to have finished rooms. In fact, we've been working on the house constantly since we moved in 3.5 years ago, it's always been under construction.
You can do it cheaper, but you, or your family have to have the skills to do it.

By Mrse on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 08:04 pm:

Well we put on an addition, 4th bedroom, laundry room, new entrance way. It cost us 30,000. Instead of buying a house that is to small, why not look at a house that is large eneough but just needs work inside. I live for renovating it is my hobby. We are in an older house right now, and I am always doing something in here, even put up drywall the other day, turned out good. good luck finding a house.