Plumbing?

Otherwise, if they are on opposite sides of the house, it probably won't matter that much and might actually give a GC a reason to complete the first job well (knowing there might be a second job).

I'm interested to see what others say.

Two very different jobs. Might be a chore to find a company willing to do both.

The addition requires more foundation, probably a new roof line and completely different skills from gutting and redoing a kitchen.

The only similar skills will be drywall, plumbing(bath), and flooring---with flooring possibly different(carpet versus hardwood/tile).

That means different people and possibly different contractors.

You'd be better served to move out if you do both together.

That is about 2 months each. Living in construction like that for 4 months is very stressful.

Shortest time---do both.

Move out either way. That kinda makes both the shorter time.

You won't really be able to live through either project. You could camp through the projects, but taking cold bucket showers and trying to find an extension cord to be able to see to dress and go to work gets really old after the first week. You need to factor in renting another residence or living with friends or family into your costs.

Are you really sure that 150K-250K extra (low side estimate) plus the cost of your sold home won't get you what you'd like to have in your market?

Domino- I just commented on your other thread, over on Smaller Homes forum. Just wanted to let you know :)

You'll certainly have to live through the mess, but I don't think it will be as primitive as lighting via extension cord or cold bucket showers. Since you're adding on a bedroom and bath, presumably you've got at least another one now, and the time that they have to turn off electrical or plumbing to tie in new stuff is more like a few hours at a time, not days or weeks.

I'd probably do one at a time. You will learn stuff from the first one that you'll apply in the second. And I'd rather just have one room/area in the house torn up at once.

We remodeled our entire house over 5 years, moving the mess from one room to the next, and the best thing we did was have a rule that one room had to be completely done before we started the next. The only time we veered from that was when Mr. Weedy was doing some framing upstairs, I was waiting for something I could do, so I tore up the dining room floor and started building wainscoting. Then we finally landed on a GC to build the shell of our sunroom addition (we had been shopping for 6 months) and he was available to start within a couple weeks. That really cramped our style for a while having few clean spaces to live in while the work was taking place (we ate on a table in the foyer for a couple months).

I don't see much cost savings to doing the two at the same time, as the others said, and containing the mess has a big upside.

How well do you deal with the chaos and mess of remodeling projects?

if it bothers you have everything done at once.

If yo can live with it, stretching it out may be an acceptable option.

My wife hates the chaos and it really bothers her.

I could care less, especially if I am saving a lot of money on the work, often by doing much of it myself.
It does tend to keep me out of trouble, except that it is never finished fast enough (as in yesterday).

Though her last experience with remodeling may have convinced her (it was actually nothing out of the ordinary on an older house, the typical can of worms only found after demo starts.

Kitchen remodel = doing dishes in the bathroom, eating out a lot.
Master bedroom addition = ad hoc sleeping arrangements.

Having done both, I'd do them one at a time.

I lived through multiple large remodels. I was lucky because I had a second kitchen I could use during the remodel. (not a makeshift kitchen but one with all major appliances installed, DW, ref, sink with disposal, full gas range. Most people do not have this luxury.

One of our remodel took 1 year or so. Where we live, a house/apt to rent for our family would be about 2K/month, which translates into 24K for the year. This is a huge savings in cost...

The plumbing was never an issue. They made sure that the water was back on every night when they left. One of our remodels including adding 2 bathrooms to the house. When we replaced the furnace, they took out the old furnace and the cold weather hit. We 'suffered' through one cold night.

I have never taken cold bucket showers during this period. I think if you ask the contractors that you want to live in the house, they can work with you.

Depending on your weather, you can only live through the remodel (ie opened up walls to the exterior) if the weather is mild. We have been there and done that too. We had all windows of one floor taken out to be replaced. There were just holes for a few days.

During one of our remodels, I had a toddler at home. Our nanny took our son to her apartment during the day! It worked out pretty well for us.