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Home Addition Plans
Key Considerations when Formulating a set of
Home Addition Plans
By: Mark J. Donovan
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One solution for expanding your
living space is to build a home addition. A properly thought out set of home
addition plans can transform a small home into a large and luxurious one with
many of the same amenities found in a new and larger home.
Beyond providing additional living space, building a home addition offers many
other benefits over building or buying a new home. A home addition enables you
to continue to live in the same neighborhood. |
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It allows your children to
continue to attend their current schools. A home addition can also offer
some significant cost savings over trading up to a larger home. For example,
there are no real estate agent costs, stamp taxes, and utility turn on/off
service fees to deal with when building a home addition.
When it comes to formulating home addition plans, start by writing down your
main objectives.
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Your objective list should include
items such as:
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What type of new living space (e.g.
Bedroom, Family Room, Kitchen, etc)
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Size of living space (Square feet and
length x width dimensions)
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Ingress/Egress to the new living
space (where will it connect into the existing home)
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How much Personal Sweat Equity will
be involved
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Budget (Cash versus Financing)
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Potentially Major Issues to Resolve
(e.g. Property setbacks, covenants, Utility Concerns, etc)
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Once you have your set of high level
home addition goals and concerns, you can then begin to develop a formal set of
home addition plans. You have a few options when designing your home addition
plans. You can draw up your own home addition plans with pencil and graph paper,
use a home remodeling design software package, buy home addition plans off of the
internet, work with a local architect, or use some combination of all of these
methods.
| Unless you have very basic home addition plans, I would highly recommend the
services of an architect. If you have an idea of what you are looking for in
your home addition plans, either from a similar home that you have seen and have
snapped some pictures of, or home addition plans you have found on the internet,
bring them with you when meeting with the architect. Between understanding your
top level home addition objectives and viewing your snapped or printed pictures
and/or drawings, the architect should be able to formulate a good set of draft
home addition plans. |
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After you have reviewed the draft
plans he/she can refine them as needed to provide you with a complete set of
home addition plans. A few iterations may be necessary to complete the final set
of home addition plans, but in the end you will get a better product. In
addition, the home addition plans should include everything you need to pull
permits and to solicit home remodeling contractor bids.
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When formulating your home addition
plans, pay as much attention to the outside design as the inside. The last thing
you want is an albatross hanging off the side of your existing home. Much of a
home’s ability to sell is its curb appeal, and bigger is not always better when
it comes to real estate, particularly if it looks like a Frankenstein.
When bidding out your home addition plans, consider up front what you may want
to tackle on your own, e.g. finish carpentry work, painting, etc.
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Photo by Mark Donovan |
Also determine if you want to be the general contractor and hire all of the
sub-contractors or hire a general contractor to do all of the sub-contractor
hiring for you. Managing half a dozen sub-contractors can be quite the
challenge. It is akin to herding cats, mood swings included.
To conclude, before jumping into a
home addition project, make sure you have written down your main objects,
generated a complete set of home addition plans, and hire the right home
remodeling contractors. By doing all of these steps you will dramatically
improve your chances of getting the home addition of your dreams. Keep in mind,
however, a home addition takes time and presents its share of family
inconvenience.
For more help on building a room addition, see HomeAdditionPlus.com's
Home
Addition Bid Sheets.
Our
Home
Addition Bid Sheets
provide you with the knowledge and information on how to plan a home addition project,
and what to look for when hiring contractors. They
also include detailed cost breakdown tables and spreadsheets for estimating
your own new home addition building costs.
How to Finance your Room Addition Project -
can help provide funds for your new home improvement project if financing is
required.
Related Building Room Addition Articles
Design Software for Developing your own Home
Addition Plans from Amazon.com
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Fill out our 3-5 minute quick and easy form, and receive a free price quote
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