My DW and I would love stay in our house for the long haul. I keep trying to figure out a way to add-on to make it more livable.
From the plot, I can’t go left or right, but I can go back about 15 feet and of course up. Anyone ever seen a good addition to this style of house?
thanks
Joe
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Replies
if there's a center hallway in the upstairs part I've seen (sister's old house) a nice office suite and master BR put on over the garage.
Up over garage or perpendicular out back from center multi-level
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The up-over-the-garage (to me) makes the house look like a set of steps.
The center section poses a problem with access, the hallway runs down the middle from left to right, not back to front. It would also make for a ginormous family room in the half-sunk middle section.
Is there any way to make the roof line look good if we went straight back and up on the right side?
on the right side what about going half way back [12-15'] and then up with a addition that then over hangs the at the back for a coverd patio/workshop/another room? roof runs same direction as now
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Like this?
Original
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addition?
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I think there is a major question that should be asked... why is the house not suitable for the long haul. The outside look to a house is only one part of many for a renovation of the magnitude you seek.
Edit to clarify post!
If you need a bigger kitchen then out the back on the right or if a bigger master bedroom (with ensuite?) the the garage option or out the back in center.... I'm just throwing ideas/food for thought.
Edited 5/29/2009 7:21 pm ET by baartman
I think there is a major question that should be asked... why is the house not suitable for the long haul.
5 in the family and just 3 bedrooms. Minimal storage space as well. Could we live here forever? Sure, but a little more room would be nice.
Adding more rooms would make it hard to look good and functional. Can you change the hallway to back to front?
wanta post the .skp of the original for us to play with?
Here's the file
(this space allocation has got to go, I can't even add a regular file now without losing my valuable space. Can't they afford a bigger server? Just sell another add inbetween our threads)
I'll try to mess with it tomorrow.
Funny thing about the space allocation I checked mine and it listed a bunch of files I posted (no telling if it's all of them) but it shows that I haven't used any space at all. Must be new math.
But the limit is going to be a detriment to this place.
Are you looking for another bedroom or a bigger living room. There are alot of different options. I altered mine last year, needed a shop more that people space. In order to make mine work I ripped part of the roof off of one section and changed the roof line. This made the tie in easier although I don't reccomend doing it while living in it (The kids were a bit nervous sleeping in there room looking up at the stars at night). Then came the rain and tarps....... the kids will never want to go camping again. What I gained was another living room (bigger), another bedroom (needed very much) a half bath, deck and of course my shop.
Edited 5/30/2009 9:46 am by silvertip
Edited 5/30/2009 9:48 am by silvertip
My priorities are
1) Additional screen in porch or sun room off the back right.
2) 4th bedroom, master suite would be great, but just a forth would be fine
3) Additional storage, ie. crawlspace
well sorta what i was picturing,except instead of the roofline continuing at the same angle , i was picturing at the ridge having a 6' wall up and then a new
gable roof line on it.but extending out the back like you have drawn
i can see it,but i don't know how to draw it on the computer!
YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'TMOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THEDUCT TAPE.
Maybey this has been posted.. but what about convert the garage to living space?
Need the garage, you're treading on thin ice trying to take my garage away. You're lucky my DW doesn't read this
;)
Edited 5/30/2009 5:04 pm by JMadson
I second or third over the garage. One of the main benifits is that you don't disrupt the house very much when you go over the garage.
Will Rogers
Here's a house near me, do you like it?
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If you hipped four sides of the upper level roof the stepping won't look so bad. I've got a model with it form yours but things are a bit inaccessible right nbow during my data backup process.
John,
I don't speak roof, I'm just a simple woodworker.
What do you mean by "If you hipped four sides of the upper level roof "?
joe
sorry I was speaking while realy tired.
Try thinking hip roof.
What about this?
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The addition would be offset to the back to minimize the impact. The large tree in our front yard would hide most of it as well.
The problem with the stack in the back is that you're going to eat up a lot of SF (in relation to the total addition) wiht the stair run. You need to use the existing stair location (I've a reversed stair before during extensive remods) to maximize your SF.
I don't think you're going to get 2 BRs into the 15ft depth very comfortably.
It would only need to be one BR up there. We've got three, just need a forth.
No I don't. It looks like three separate buildings stuck together.
There are ways to unify the three levels though.
Imagine that house on one level with exterior treatment uniform all the way across.
Pretty boring I would say.
So having different levels is actually a good thing if it is pulled off.
It adds a third dimension to the building that I think is exciting.
One way to unify or flow one level into another is landscaping.
You add different levels outside of the building in the landscape that on one level unify the building and on another level add excitement and variety.
My front yard is a good example. It sloped predictably down to the street.
I had a landscape designer do a plan for me and it was the same slope.
I had some extra soil I needed to get rid of so I added different elevations to the front yard.
It is much more exciting now but unified by materials. Rock mostly.
You can do the same thing with a building. Unify it with materials but add excitement with setbacks and elevations. Your imagination (and budget) is the only thing holding you back."There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
Ah!... I clicked on the first picture and was afraid that was what you were suggesting he should do! The landscaping you've done really does transform the house.
It's not done yet. I was just trying to show that there are ways to make most designs work.
The problem is figuring out what will work before you actually see it.
It takes creativity to see it. Looking around helps, but eventually it has to be created by your imagination. "There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
The way you have re-alligned the approach to your entry makes a lot of difference. It is much more welcoming. Was that stone or wood sticking up before?
It was railroad ties on end. It reminded me of a wharf by the ocean. It needed a plastic seagull to complete it.
Behind the railroad ties was a large slab of pink concrete where the original owners sat at a table with chairs.
The landscape designer had me take the walkway to the left near the front door and the right side of the porch is supposed to have a lattice covering it up with vines on it.
The lattice is a way of shutting off the right side on the porch visually.
I'm just not sure if lattice is the best way to go about it. It is the front entrance and I'd like something a little more substantial or formal.
I was thinking of a low masonry planter box with a custom lattice on top.
I still don't have a design theme for the house. Greene and Greene? I'm just throwing that out. But if I do a custom lattice there it needs to have a pattern that is carried throughout. Like the light fixtures. And the metal fence.
I did a quick search and found this light. This isn't necessarily right, but it just an example.
I
"There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
Edited 5/31/2009 4:15 pm by popawheelie
I think your house would take very well to being pushed in a craftsman direction with the type of fixtures you show. I tend to agree lattice isn't the right choice for the entry. Some judicious masonry or stone with Green and Green-y detailed wood above might do the trick.
You didn't consider just dressing the pink patio with some Tika-tika light strings and plastic palms? Leave a vintage telescope out to look for UFOs.
After my last post I was thinking craftman as well. But I'm still just guessing right now.
Is craftman a pretty loose style? Like you can do more things with it and still be in the style? Less formal than other styles? A poor mans Greene and Greene?"There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
Well Greene and Greene were an architectural partnership whose work goes from carefully joined and detailed wood houses to more rough rammed earth ranches. So Greene and Greene style is pretty much just immitating their more famous projects.
Craftsman encompasses the work of a wider range of designers and is a style in its own right loosely held together by its emphasis on a certain detailing that marries an unarticulated "honest" use of wood with carefully crafted joints and hardware. Now it has become a very pick and choose style, including elements from the Prairie style, The English Arts and Crafts and others which share a common vocabulary.
Given that your house isn't in itself a Craftsman style house, I wouldn't get too picky about authenticity. Look for anything in these styles that you think would work on your house and use them.
I'm at a loss as to how any of the posters replying are able to make useful suggestions without knowing the floor plan or a dozen other pertinent bits of info that should be informing their designs. You probably should consult an architect.
Didn't mean it as a slight against your question. I was just amazed that on a site where people are routinely chastised for their audacity in asking about sizing a beam or tiling a bathroom without providing copious background on existing loads or depth of underlayments, people are content to blithely suggest design solutions without knowing anything about the house's internal layout.
Given that the decisions made about the location and massing of your addition are the ones that will most affect both the success and budget of your project, I thought it might be prudent to talk to someone who had a bit of experience doing this kind of thing.
On the back half of my garage I put in a deck. I left the front trusses as mono pitch and put a gable end truss in this gives me privacy from the front street and from the neighbours.
Here is a front view of the garage.
Sorry, you caught me in a sarcastic moment. My bad, not yours.
I think my house style is pretty much in every city across the country. I'm just looking for good examples of what others may have seen that looks good.
I have no desire to move, but we need more space. I'm worried that I won't see a really good example of an addition that I'll like.
Joe
Not at all, maybe I should have explained more.
I would see the design process being something like this:
Apart from floor plans and a survey, I'd like to see not only your house but what the other houses on the street look like. It would be interesting to know what other houses you like, and if the style of your house presently suits you.
I'd would go through what works now in the house and what doesn't; what spaces and activities you would like to add to the house, and which ones should be accommodated in the addition.
It would be only at this point, when we knew the spaces and their relationships to each other you wanted would I begin to think about the location and massing of the addition.
One of the prime considerations would be that it helped with any weaknesses the existing house had. Without a floor plan and looking solely at the front elevation that everyone is basing their designs on, my immediate inclination would be to place the addition at ground level in front of the right hand wing. At present the main entry and path to the house is undersized and has too abrupt a transition between the public and private areas. Having people walk past so many window before reaching the entry is also awkward. An addition into the front lawn would allow you to create a welcoming entry courtyard.
Of course this is really idle speculation because based on your floor plan, an addition here or above the garage may be entirely inappropriate.
I wouldn't worry too much about getting something to look good on your house. Any competent designer should be able to come up with dozens of variations that would look fine.
Left is all garage, stairs in the garage go to the lower level in the middle section
Lower middle section is one giant family room (best feature of the house) with a small bathroom.
Upper middle is two bedrooms in front, each the same size roughly. Master is back on the left and the two bathroom make up the back right. The hallway goes down the middle from left to right.
Right is half kitchen (the back half) and half living room (the front half). There is also a basement under the right side.
From the inside, our best bet is over the garage. Easiest stairs and least disruptive construction. Anything built up on the left would have stairway issues IMO.
Thanks for the input
i like fingersandtoes idea of doing something to the front as well, on the right (non-garage) side, if set-backs would allow this. it would make the house look better from the street, and address some of the issues he mentioned about entering the house.i also liked your sketch for the addition in the back, it's the simplest/cheapest, but as someone mentioned, the required stairwell would eat up too much of it.so maybe combine the two ideas? expand the right side front and back and up- you get a better entranceway and bigger living room in the front, a bigger kitchen plus sunroom in the back, and whatever you want (new master bedroom?) above. and it doesn't require moving (just stacking) any of the plumbing.dealing with the rooflines to avoid that "step" look is important, but beyond me. <g>
Setbacks don't allow anything forward. I wish, that would solve a lot.
can you get a variance?
could you excavate and create living space below ?
could you excavate
That's probably my best solution, all said and done.
Jack it up and put in a lower floor. Old garage becomes living space. Lower floor becomes garage and shop and bar (poolroom).
DONE!
Jack it up and put in a lower floor
The whole house? If so, I love it. Still looks the same, just a little taller. Probably won't happen that way, but I still love it.
Put your MB over the garage, but not the entire garage. Stay back from the left side by maybe 6'. Leave that part of the original roof there to minimize the mass.
Extending the garage left even a few feet would help. The upper wall could then line up with the garage door.
So it would be about what 16 feet wide by 20 deep?
Right side of the house is kitchen, dining room? Kitchen in the back? Bump that straight back and expand the kitchen and have your screened porch. Gable roof back from the existing ridge.
Move your front door to the center where the window is. Add a portico/little porch roof over it. Sidelights on the door.
OK, Last. Add a third window in your downstairs family room between the two that are there. Outside of there have a nice garden area on the way to the front door.