Four Home and Room Additions That Maximize Function & Appeal

Cultivating a home that exudes value and prestige is the goal of every home owner. Having various elements to ensure that your home is unique in design and function can boost resale value, improve ambiance and ultimately make your living experience better. With such an interest in older homes now infused within the housing market, finding ways to spruce up these homes is very common.

 

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One of the easiest ways in which to do this is to invest in home and room additions. There are numerous projects and tasks that can increase square footage and improve the overall function of every single room in the home. However, only some truly provide better function and increased appeal.

Let’s take a look at four of these room additions today and explain how each is worth the investment.

• Screened Porch

Reclaiming the great outdoors is a common desire for home owners who care about the look and feel of their properties. Properly maintained outdoor spaces can add huge curb appeal – but you might not always feel like being under the scorching sun to enjoy a beautiful summer day.

Why not add cedar corbels to your porch? They are the perfect way to create an attractive space in any environment. Not only do they offer a warm and inviting touch, but they also provide structural support for your deck or porch.

One popular home addition is a screened porch, which combines the best of both interior and exterior elements. A screened porch keeps pests out, lowers the temperature of the immediate area and effectively adds space to your overall home. There are even temperature control solutions for screened porches that help you achieve the exact climate desired year-round.

• Attic Renovation

Making the most of every space in the home should be a long-term goal for every home owner. There is probably no better place to look for potential improvements than in your attic or crawl space. Many owners simply neglect these areas, either using them for storage or abandoning them entirely.

Full attics, partial attics and even crawl spaces can be renovated and improved, adding potentially hundreds of square feet to the home. Likewise, the attic is an important structural element in any home, with proper care and maintenance ensuring a longer life for the house at-large.

Many home owners are even using energy-efficient and sustainable building practices to boost the “green factor” of their attics. Given that an incredible amount of heating and cooling loss occurs via the attic, renovating this segment of the home simply makes good financial sense (for example, Edina home builders – Sustainable 9 offers a variety of sustainable improvements that are optimized for cold weather climates).

• Basement Remodel

Many homes have a basement – but only some live up to their true potential. In many relatively newer homes, basements offer an identical amount of square footage compared to the floor above them. However, so many remain unfinished, and actually become liabilities as homes age.

There’s arguably no better way to dramatically increase the amount of space in the home than by renovating or remodeling a damp, dull basement. From home office space and recreational areas to a new bedroom and bathroom, the opportunities are endless. While certainly the most expensive addition of any on this list, it is also the best one for enhancing value, appeal and function (estimate your basement renovation costs by clicking here).

• Laundry Room

Having a place to install bulky washers and dryers is a dream for many – especially given that many older homes do not have dedicated, organized spaces for these appliances. One of the easiest add-ons to any home is a laundry room: this tiny addition can be accomplished for as little as a few thousand dollars and will free up space in your kitchen, closet or whichever areas where your washer and dryer currently exist.

Additionally, a dedicated laundry room can be designed with moisture control in mind. Rather than letting heat and moisture cause damage to parts of the home that aren’t designed for this purpose, a laundry room can be constructed to exact specifications and can account for these home hazards.

Whether it’s building a completely new segment onto an existing home or overhauling an existing area, home renovation projects should always be about function and appeal. These four projects range in cost and complexity, but all offer benefits that make them worthy of consideration.

 

Further Reading:

• Mortgage Calculator– calculate a mortgage you can afford
• Home Ownership Rates– How many people own their own home?
• Government help for buying a new home – Learn about government programs that make it easier to purchase a home