Greenspeed, Home Design, Raising Value, Sustainability

3 Ways to Add Value to Your Home

by Moneca Kaiser, October, 10 2015

Before

There is a very high quality of life in the urban core but our housing is often not meeting our needs for how we live these days. No storage, segregated rooms and not quite enough space. We’re all for renovating existing urban housing into your ideal home because research confirms again and again that commuting drastically lowers our quality of life.

After : )

So we doubled the size by adding a two story addition onto the back of the house and it’s lovely and still a modestly sized home by todays standards at 1600 sq ft but so accommodating.

The Story

Our flients (clients who become friends) asked us if we would build the design a local architect had done. The answer is yes if the design is fully resolved.

After they saw our concepts they decided to walk away from a considerable investment and start over with us and here’s why.

1. Renovating the Existing House is Often Essential

Its a fallacy that not renovating the existing house and merely adding onto it saves money. The problem as you can see from this example is that it devalues the whole project i.e.

– Wasted real estate for huge hallway
– Back to back living and family room
– Bathroom & laundry room is in the prime real estate- cutting off the main living areas from natural light and the connection to the outdoors. (2 full bathrooms is too much)
– The rooms are segregated because of the original bathroom location, so it feels tight instead of spacious and these days we like to live in one room.

As Built Plan

Architect’s Proposed Plan

2. Design to Let the SUNLIGHT in & Invite a Relationship With the Yard

In our design the whole back of the house is open to let in the light and embrace the outdoors as part of the home. (In the other design because they were not renovating the existing house, it dictated that the bathroom and laundry room be in the prime real estate, blocking the view and light of the back yard.)

This is what we proposed. Our flients fell in love with it and decided to walk away from their investment with the other firm. Notice that the living dining and office areas are all flexible and can be interchanged. They do actually change it with the seasons. Also we have a main floor bedroom and bathroom which is ideal if viable.