The addition we're planning is quite large and extensive and involves two entire exterior walls. I think it may be less expensive to just start over with a new build, but DH says maybe not when you factor in the cost of our having to rent someplace for a year or more while we build. And yes, we're going to hire an architect whom we will ask all these questions, but right now I'm interested in your experiences.

So, if you put on a large addition to your home, did you live there during the reno? Was it comfortable or miserable? Pros, cons, advice? Would you do it again? When we did a whole-house interior remodel of our MN house, we lived in a hotel for 6 months and it was nice, but then, insurance was paying for it. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had had to live in the midst of that. Will you please share your experiences?

TIA!

For a huge reno like that, really doesn't make sense to live in the house. We have close friends who invited us to take over their other bedroom, but not everyone is so lucky. As for comfort vs misery... honestly, how would anyone be comfortable in a war zone. Assuming you have a contractor you trust, get out of their way.

In the end, days before demo, my contractor called and asked that we get EVERYTHING out of the house. Originally, we had left large furniture in the house and moved it all to the front where the work was not taking place. But he rethought this. With all the traffic in and out, dust, equipment... Our house is tiny so he thought it made more sense to move it out. He offered his team to do the move, we just rented the storage unit.

We were also fortunate to have the power and plumbing work the whole time.

I don't know if I suggested it for everyone-but it can be done, we managed to survive without any fights or thoughts of divorce. I live in the bay area and renting costs plus a mortgage are out of the question for us.

This sounds not quite intuitive but your cost per square foot to build is much MORE expensive to remodel than to build new. I think in the long run, you will get a better house with only a fraction more if you build new. If you are taking out a mortgage to make this huge remodel happen, over the course of the mortgage, the difference is NOT that much.

A few reasons why you get a better house:
1. you are not limited by the floor plan of the house if you build new.
2. it allows you to site the house as well as it can be on the lot by not being limited to the original siting.
3. you do not inherit things that were not done well if you build new.

One of the exercise that you can do to help you in making your mind about building new versus adding on is to draw a floor plan of how you would build new on the site that you have. Then draw a floor plan of the remodel. Compare the two and list what you would NOT get out of the remodel versus new. This will help you make your decision.

Good luck...

What we are planning on doing (possibly) is buying a cape, popping the top for a full 2nd story additon while completely gutting the downstairs for a full reworking of the interior.

I'll save on framing costs, foundation costs, plumbing to the house, electric to the house.

I won't be living there for this. Living through remodels suck for kitchens or bathrooms. a full house one is worse.

If I wasn't "fixing" the downstairs, I might consider it, but even then, it will be very dusty/messy until your in the trim stage.

You have to be able to resign yourself to living with strangers around, dust in the cupboards and on everything sometimes, lots of banging and crashing, loud music, some off color language when people don't realize you are in earshot and parking problems. On the other hand, it's a fascinating process to watch.

I think a lot depends on if you are also remodeling the existing house at all.

We lived through our last renovation which involved removing the back exterior wall (of a row home) and building a two story addition.

It was no fun for about 9 months. We lived out of one bedroom with a blow up bed, our patio furniture and a tv. All other furniture was in storage.
We washed clothes at a friend's house and ate out for every meal. I gained 25 lbs misery eating.

We then had a family of mice move into the one bedroom we were living in with us so we waged a two week war against the mice which has probably taken at least a year off my life. : )

We shared the one (white) bathroom with all the workers and I was happy to be short sighted so I didn't have to see where I was showering in the morning.

Honestly I look back on it fondly now, and it makes for some funny stories, but don't do it if you have any other choice. Especially with kids.

We have a small white dog who was permanently grey and we were all freezing and miserable. Renovating over winter didn't help.
I can't imagine doing it with kids.

Good luck, remodeling is fun and totally worth it, but try and make it as easy on yourselves as you can. Having somewhere clean and warm to go at night really could make all the difference to your sanity! : )

From Menlo Farmhouse

From Menlo Farmhouse

From Menlo Farmhouse

Even after a huge number of surprises that were found in the ground and related to the leveling of the house, we think we saved about $50-$70K in foundation cement/building/labor, keeping what we did (basically 80% of the foundation). Our City would have charged us double for the permit ($10K more) and would have made us go through a design process that would have cost us about $10K more if had built new. In addition, it would have added another 6 mos to our project (mostly in review process)--think about rent for another 6 mos. So, basically, by trying to work with what we had, but stripping the house down, we saved about $80k. That's a lot! Your city might be different. Also, our California taxes were different with a remodel versus the new home.

Good Luck! Sounds like a fun and big project!

L shaped ranch house. completely demolished the long side of the L - living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, bedroom, bathroom, & garage. The only thing left standing was a rock fireplace that we wanted to save.

short side of L (now fondly called the "west wing") we planned on leaving until we finished the other part of the house. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and laundry in this part of the house.

Contractor got a "little" carried away and removed all the siding and insulation in the west wing at the same time he did the planned remodel area.

luckily we have a finished basement. We didn't want to spend a fortune heating the outdoors so we kept the heat in the west wing to a bare minimum and moved into the basement.

Our plan was to add on about 1400 sq ft and a third garage bay.

1st year we slept on cots in the basement during the winter (we live in snow country) and in a 5th wheel trailer in the driveway in the summer (unless we had company---which we did a few times--and then we slept in the yard under the apple tree). We had no electricity in the remodel area so we used flashlights to find our way around through the mess upstairs and down to the basement. We cooked on the outside grill and had a microwave, crockpot and coffee pot in the basement. Luckily,we had an old beer fridge down there too.

We moved everything we could to a rental storage unit but basement took the over flow with boxes stacked everywhere.

Periodically the police would show up in the middle of the night saying they gotten a 911 call. Our phone lines got cut early on and the phones liked to do their own thing. No joke!!!

We hung one of our old patio doors in the doorway to close off the upstairs as much as we could. I spent a lot of time duct taping around the jam to control the dust and dirt but, believe me, a lot made it through.

When we finally got a sub floor we cooked pizza in our new wood fired pizza oven for 50 or 60 people and a few of their 4 legged friends. We strung contractors lights from the ceiling, built a huge fire in the old fireplace and put out some folding tables and lawn chairs. We didn't have to worry about damaging anything or the mess and it was great.

Second year I insisted on adding some insulation to the west wing so we at least got to turn the heat up a little and go back to our bedroom.

Still cooking outside---have learned more and more dutch oven cooking and cooking over a campfire. We have a great firepit that we sit around in the evening summer and winter.

Still under a couple of down comforters at night but as soon as we finish the first part of the house we'll get started on the west wing and hopefully it won't take as long.

To tell you the truth it isn't all that bad and we have loads of stories. For me the worst part is cleaning and cleaning and cleaning to try to control the spread of dust and dirt that's constant. For my DH the worst part is lack of privacy and the commotion and noise level.

If I had it all to do over I would really think about demolishing the whole house and starting from scratch instead of trying to make an old house new. We didn't do that originally because DH didn't want to move out. He felt it would be easier and cheaper to stay in the house. It wasn't easier and it sure hasn't been cheaper but we're surviving and maybe we respect and appreciate each other more now. We still laugh a lot. So who's to say what's best?

Having a shower, toilet, washer/dryer and fridge made all the differnce. Don't think I could have survived going to the laundramat all the time. Silly but true. You might want to think about those things that you can't live without.

Long narrative but hopefully thought provoking. Good luck.

We moved in with my parents, which isn't too bad considering the alternatives but it is still hard. All of our possessions are in boxes. I needed a humidifier last night (sick baby), can't find it. I still can't find my winter boots?? I still can't find my sons snowsuit. Well... you get the picture.

I also know that our contractor said it would have been easier to build new because they had to do a lot of rework. The original house had a lot of issues!! Nothing was done properly, it was not level or square (foundation issue), the electrical was not up to code, etc.

For us, we loved the property and in the end, I think we never would have found a completely renovated house for the price we have paid.

I don't know if it helps, but that has been our experience.
Good luck in your decision.