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Alternatively, excavate the land around the basement so it is now ground level and the first floor automatically becomes a second floor - this by far the cheapest.
Alternatively, excavate the land around the basement so it is now ground level and the first floor automatically becomes a second floor - this by far the cheapest.
For 100K extra, you might as well just move and use that 100K as a down payment on a bigger, newer home with a second floor already there....
sometimes that makes sense, and sometimes not. First of all, 100K isn't really 100K. If I had 100K in my pocket and said lets move to a new house. I would have realtor fees of 16K, closing costs of about 10K, and moving fees whatever they cost. so all in your 100K just turned to 70 right off the bat.
Then it comes down to are you looking to stay in the same area....are you happy with your current location in that area. Did you already do things that make you want to stay in your house, new kitchen, deck, etc
At the end of this, is the house that is $70K more than yours, as nice as your hosue with a dormer?
I would argue sometimes yes, sometimes no.
I also have a theory regarding larger move up houses. most people move up and stay in the nice ones. the reason why there end up being the same homes on the market, or that they're on for a length of time, is that they are less desireable. the nice houses, people buy and stay for 30 years. Some may turn over here and there, but get sold pretty quickly. The smaller ones will turn over since people are looking to move up. Who knows if my arguement holds water....
I am in the process of doing a dormer to my house, I think it made sense for me. I don't think its costing more than a similar house to purchase, and its the way I want it. I tried looking at houses for sale for a long time and couldn't find a colonial with space that was renovated and didn't cost a fortune.
To the OP, we have a two story cape with an addition. Due to structural insuffiency and sagging of the entire second floor and roof (the people who built our house used 2 x 6's to frame the second floor, and span 14 feet) we decided to tear off the second story---open to the sky, and reframe from the floor joists up...using 2 x 12's, and a truss roof. We had an engineer blueprint, and permits from the town, as required.
We also raised the downstairs' ceiling height to regular height, as it was a little low, which made it difficult to find replacement doors. We also put in a new kitchen, including tile, cabinets, an island, a desk nook, and a small bump out with a skylight (6 x 14), a 8 x 12 deck with an anderson patio door, a new downstairs bathroom with 6 foot jacuzzi tub, dual vanity, separate shower, (used a small bedroom and converted it...didn't change walls, just added plumbing), a new bathroom upstairs, dual vanity, tub/shower surround (but no master bathroom, which is making resale a b*tch) all anderson windows, and resided the top half of the house, and reroofed the addition to match. We added gutter guards, no air conditioning, but a whole house fan. We have six panel wood doors, stained golden oak, and a new oak staircase, We have all stained trim, except for in the downstairs bathroom.
We lived in the addition during this mess, which was a good six to eight months, with some items never finished by our contractor after we had paid him. There are five of us who live in the house. It was not easy stumbling over boxes and climbing down a ladder in the middle of the night to use the bathroom downstairs. It's also not fun to have people in your house all the time, with little privacy.
This cost us around $120,000 for the construction, but we paid for the extras, such as new lighting, carpets, painted ourselves, paid for some of the new copper pipe, paid the plumber extra, paid the son of the contractor extra for ceiling fans, etc., which probably all came to an extra $15,000.
We now have a nice solid house Like my Daddy always said, leave things better than you found them. Good luck to you with your house purchase. If you would like to see my house, it is listed on the MLS, as it is for sale, and I could give you the listing number just to see how it turned out.
When you raised your first floor ceilings, did you use a kneewall or sister in new full height studs ?
im doing a second floor on a ranch 60x40 and the best way to do this is to save your roof trusses if premanufactured, install floor joists,install walls..replace old roof trusses...replace old ply wood if in good condition ( remove carefully) and shingle roof, windows , 3 rooms on second floor>>> master bedroom>>> master bathroom>>>and 1 guest room....DIY project and i expect material to cost 20k plus my labor...im a contractor but if i were to contract such job on a mid grade level i would estimate the job at 75k to 80k. proper foundation is key,rebar foundation @ 8-12 inches thick with 3500 psi concrete. foundation dead and live loads are available at permit issuance dept. good luck
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Like my Daddy always said, leave things better than you found them. Good luck to you with your house purchase. If you would like to see my house, it is listed on the MLS, as it is for sale, and I could give you the listing number just to see how it turned out.
