Yep, that's all it takes. A couple of feet larger here, a few cabinets there, space for the snow-blower and sailboat, cubbies for the kid's gear and voila! 25% more house area!

That's exactly how it happens!

At the end of the day, it's really, really important to keep in mind the essential needs and seperate them from the desirable wants.

Good luck with your project!

Um, yeah. We started out with 3300 sq/ft but didn't realize that didn't include the 'optional' 4th bedroom we didn't feel was very optional. No biggie since it just added 300 sq/ft. Then we pushed out a couple of walls and finished a couple of areas that was supposed to be storage or attic space and next thing you know we're at 4200 sq/ft! Financially we're only about 5% over our original budget though. :)

We added about 2000 sq feet since each time we added space it also added space to the upstairs (800 sq foot bonus/play room mainly) and the finished basement below. Oh well. Only do this once, right?

Did you add 2000 sq feet or 200?

Lots of people live in 2000 square feet (or would love to). If you added 2000 sq feet you should look at the impact to your HVAC needs.

Hvac needs covered. Only explored them after the final plan.

2000 sq ft? Wowza! You win. :)

It was unintentional. I swear! :)

yes, that happened to us, many many times...that's why it took us so long to design the house. Every time we came across an issue, it seemed it could be solved by more sq ft...but then the house got too large, so we'd rip up the plan and start all over again. We finally got the design that was as small as we wanted, yet had 95% of what we wanted.

Annie,
Your plan has always intrigued me... Do you have it posted on GW? (Would you be willing to share, even via email? I'm not building, just a floorplan "junkie". :) )

kirkhall, I've never posted it as I feel it belongs to our architect and wouldn't want to post it without his permission.

But I did post a thread on our inspiration for the house plan which you might want to look at...

Here is a link that might be useful: Inspiration for house