Which house set up would you buy?

I am back at thinking about this extension remodel.

I am trying to think about ALL the possibilities about this remodel but also potential resale in the future.

Set up right now is

Downstairs: EIK, LR, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. No dining room area
Upstairs: 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom (shower only)

It's the Levitt ranch. Enter in Kitchen in the side of house by the garage. LR in in the back seperated from kitchen by the fireplace. Hallway after kichen and LR. Pass 1 bathroom. 2 bedrooms on each side after the bathroom.


Our current options:
Do an extension in the back of the house when the LR is and add a dining room. $31K

Do also an extension of the kitchen on the front yard and make it a true EIK and bigger space. $18K I would also add curb appeal which the house lacks on the front elevation

Total: $50K




Altenative option I am thinking about. Move all the bedrooms upstairs.

Full size dormer: about $70-75k (not including moving the entry door and not ripping the 2 bedrooms to make 1 big LR. See below)


Downstairs: Open both bedrooms and make it the LR. The LR now would be the DR.

Move front door to front of house and still enter through the kitchen but reverse kitchen to a mirror image. So you almost enter in the middle of the house.

Leave the full size bathroom downstairs.

Or create a half bath and make the bathroom a real entry way with a foyer.


Create 2 bedrooms upstairs with 1 common bathroom and 1 master bedroom with it's own bathroom. 3 bedrooms total.

Create 4 bedrooms and 1 common bathroom and keep a full bathroom downstairs.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Doing a dormer will raise your taxes.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Ok Im thoroughly confused so not sure if this is an option or not Def dormer and move the entry door somehow that you do NOT enter through the kitchen if thats possible

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

I'm good with this stuff but need to see - when do you want me to drop by?
The concern might be outpricing yourselves with the dormer (not sure if this is or not)
Also, if you dormer, how concerned are you really with resale? Will you stay there for the long haul in which case I wouldn't be too concerned about that.
I think you get more bang for your buck reconfiguring bedrooms as living space and moving all bedrooms upstairs IF it flows right, but I'm having a hard time visualizing what you have.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

I would move the front door no matter what

I voted for 4bedrooms because it can never hurt to add more, and if your doing the work you may as well, it can't really cost that much more 3 vs 4

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

We have a cape as well and we've been debating what to do.

We have a similar layout and number of rooms.

After meeting with architects and builders, we've decided to do the dormer and not expand the footprint of the house.

We are going to open up the two brs downstairs into one big family room and then have a kitchen/dining area on the other side (not a formal dining room but, a table large enough to accomodate 8).

Upstairs, we are going from 2 to 3 brs and 1 to 2 baths.

The price we were quoted to go out the back was a good deal more than doing it this way so it factored into our decision.

Are there any homes in your area that you can visit to get a feel for what you are going to do? Our builder just updated a neighbors home and we went to check it out and were extremely happy with the layout.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

I personally would rather dormer and put all the bedrooms upstairs, but that's just me.

If you can afford the dormer, I would do it. Also, what about moving the entry door to the other side of the bathroom so you walk into the livingroom (leaving the full bathroom downstairs. I know that's kind of far from the garage, but I HATE entering through the kitchen. The half bathroom idea isn't bad either though.

As for the 3BR or 4BR upstairs - how many do you utilize now ? the 3BR idea sounds nice, giving you a bigger MBR.

I also think that when you add square footage onto the footprint of the house (1st floor extensions) you are taxed differently (more) then if you dormer out upstairs. You are already being taxed on the liveable space you have upstairs, dormering would add to that, but not as much as if you were to add to the footprint. I'm not 100% positive on that though....

Whatever you decide - good luck !!

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

While *I* would probably prefer all bedrooms upstairs, a big trend in housing now is having at least one bedroom downstairs to account for the aging population that some day won't be able to climb stairs. Just something to think about for resale.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

i know the exact layout you have -

I would add 4 bedrooms upstairs and if you can afford make the entry way at the center.
Be careful what you think the cost of the dormer would be unless you are doing alot of the work yourself. It seems a little low at 70-75k.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

i grew up in a Levitt and this is how my house was set up:

it was an "A" frame (the house looked like an A from the front and you walked into the kitchen from the side right by the garage - sounds just like yours)

my parents made the back half of the garage into the living room so we ended up with 1/2 of a garage (don't know if this is an option for you)

the original LR became our dining room

ETA: our kitchen had a window seat window in it which opened the room up considerably and we had an island in the middle that we could eat at.

the roof was extended forward on the front and held up by posts (looked like a front porch but there was no actual porch)

so the 1st floor had:
1/2 garage
EIK
DR
LR
full bath
and 2 medium bedrooms

upstairs they didn't dormer but we had:
Master BR
full bath
and 2 small bedrooms (divided by the chimney)

the downside of the upstairs were the slanted walls which would be eliminated if you were to dormer. but we were a family of 4 and had plenty of room.

Good luck with whichever plan you choose!

FM me if you want pics - I might be able to find some!!

Message edited 9/22/2010 3:18:26 PM.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

We have the same house! we have the rear dormer and walk in to the room that you would call the living room. we actually have it as the DR and a front entryway area. the rest of the downstairs is all open. i hated coming in through the kitchen and closing the door off gave us more space for cabinetry.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Message edited 9/22/2010 3:31:36 PM.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

Message edited 9/22/2010 3:30:13 PM.

Re: Which house set up would you buy?

yup exactly. we still have the double fireplace, with the LR on the other side of kitchen.

the 2 little rooms are now 1 big room. we wanted the LR in the back of the house because of the windows and backyard access so we used that as the LR and made the big room the DR/entryway. honestly, i dont love that part of the house. Never gets used and feels strange to me to walk into my dining room. thats why i kind of split it up with furniture to make it almost look like 2 separate spaces. we bought the house with the dormer but did all the other reno ourselves.