Home additions can bring a surprising breath of fresh air into your home.
When the economy goes into a slump, it can become less appealing to sell your home and buy or build somewhere else when there are so many hidden purchasing costs involved. But if you decide to stay in your current home, that doesn’t mean you can’t make some improvements to make it a more enjoyable place to live.
In some cases, doing an addition could be a big money-saver. In others, the real value is the ability to stay in the neighborhood you’ve lived in for years.
Yet, when it comes to adding on, building up, or expanding, the possibilities are almost endless. We’ve rounded up some of the most popular home addition ideas to help you decide what.
Is It Better to Build up or Out?
The first step when deciding whether to build up or out is to decide what you want out of your home. Try asking yourself these questions:
What is missing from my home?
What do I wish I had more of? More sunlight? More bathrooms? More living space? More storage?
What makes me envious when I’m in other peoples’ homes?
The second step is to talk to a professional home renovation team that can help you determine what is possible based on the current layout of your home and your land. There is no one correct answer here because it depends on your home, and often on what local authorities will approve.
We highly recommend talking to a team that you trust because a good renovation company will always have suggestions for how you can achieve your vision for your home, even if there are some challenges to overcome to make it happen.
Now, what kind of home additions should you consider?
Add a Second Floor
If your home is currently one level, a second-floor addition can literally double the size of your home without absorbing any of your garden space.
(But to do this, we need foundations that are capable of taking the weight of the additional story. Talk to your renovation team to help determine if this is possible for you.)
With additional square footage upstairs, you can create bedrooms, guestrooms, bathrooms, upstairs laundry or even a home office. Building up can also make room for a rec room, gym, or a home theater.
One of the biggest fears we hear from customers before they work with us is, “I don’t want it to look blocky, unsightly, or tacked on without any thought. I want it to look like it’s always been there.”
A good renovation company will be able to make sure your addition seamlessly blends into the rest of your house. Then, all you need to worry about is how you want to design and enjoy your new space.
Create a Master Suite
This might be the perfect time to create the master suite of your dreams. You could use the new square footage to make a large master bedroom, create an ensuite that’s big enough for your own private bath tub, design the walk-in closet of your dreams.
You might also enjoy having an additional sitting area or outdoor space to complete your own parent’s retreat. Some parents even add a small kitchenette to keep snacks and drinks on hand for their own private ‘happy hour.’
Enjoy your morning coffee right off of your bedroom or watch the sunset with a glass of wine.
Add on to the Back of Your Home
If your home has a large backyard, you can gain a lot of square footage by building on to the back of your home.
With an addition to the back of your house, you can create a new hangout space for your kids or grandkids or make a huge new entertainment space.
Maybe you work from home and you have never had a dedicated office space. Your new addition can give you the workplace you need.
For older kids at home, you can create a large new family room to entertain their friends or do homework.
The back of your house is also a great place to add a sunroom or four-season room. With floor to ceiling windows that look out into your yard, you’ll have a beautiful new space to eat breakfast, lounge, watch television, or read.
Expand Your Living Room to Create a Great Room
If you’re expanding and moving your existing floor plan around, you may be able to turn a small living room into a great room. A great room is usually part of in an open floor plan design.
Most great rooms are located next to the kitchen or dining room. These open spaces can bring families closer together and give them the opportunity to spend more time with one another. Parents can cook in the kitchen while the children play games in the connecting great room.
Create a New Mudroom
If you’re expanding and moving your existing floor plan around, it might be wise to consider whether you now have space for a new mudroom. They can be a blessing when it comes to hiding all your winter coats and boots.
This is a small inclusions compared to adding another story or creating a great room, but we don’t think anyone has ever regretted having a mudroom to hide things away and keep their entry tidy.
Kitchen Additions
Kitchens are the heart of the home. They also give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to adding value. Extending your home to make a new kitchen is usually a good investment.
A frustrating kitchen layout can be hard to renovate or re-work. But this is where a new addition can allow you to start over and give you the opportunity to create your dream layout and expand the space beyond the existing dimensions.
If you cook and entertain outdoors, you can also use your new kitchen addition to connect a walkout patio or porch as part of your addition. If your current home layout allows for it, your new kitchen addition could open up to a patio where you have outdoor seating and a grill to enjoy in the summer months.
Considering a Home Addition in Calgary?
We know it can feel overwhelming to start any renovation project when there are so many options out there. But if you work with a good builder (like us), then they will take a lot of the stress and guesswork out of the process for you.
Are you in Calgary and want to revamp your home? Look at our HOME ADDITIONS SERVICES. We help build on your vision to make it the best possible result. At the end of the project, we want you to say: “I knew what I wanted but it turned out so much better than expected.”