Five Cheaper Ways to Increase the Area of Your Home

When you first bought your first home, it must have seemed huge, especially if you were moving from a tiny apartment. But the longer you own it (and start filling it with stuff, pets, and kids), the smaller it seems.

What to do? Buy a big house? Of course, but it will be expensive , especially now. Get a drive ? Now your stuff is 20 minutes away and you need to pay a new monthly bill. Add an addition to an existing home? Also expensive, but not necessary. While adding a brand new room or wing to your home may be the perfect solution for your space needs, if you don’t have the money for such a project, you may want to consider cheaper options.

Finishing an existing unfinished space

The first option to consider is refinishing existing spaces. Unfinished areas such as basements do not count as living space in your home, so finishing them adds value and space to your home.

If you have a garage, this will be the cheapest place to finish. Garages are often already attached to the main level of the house, have a door connection to the rest of the space, and are probably at least connected to electricity. The average garage conversion cost is around $15,000 , although it can be much higher if you need to add bathroom plumbing or if your garage is very large (or if you’re trying to convert one part of a three-seater). garage and leave the rest for the car). The main drawback is the lack of covered parking, but this is a cheap way to gain square meters.

Unfinished attics and basements are also obvious targets for finishing, with basement finishes averaging around $23,000 and attic finishes averaging $25,000 .

Protect open space

Another way to cheaply expand your home is to use open spaces that are already part of the home, such as patios and verandas. This can be quite complex, requiring new foundations and everything from plumbing to wiring, in addition to adding walls, windows, and doors to connect the space to the existing home. Depending on the size of your patio, its full fencing can cost you anywhere from $17,500 on the lower level to several hundred thousand on the top level, which isn’t much cheaper than just adding a room. Enclosing a veranda and turning it into a four-season room can be cheaper, averaging between $20,000 and $80,000 .

A cheaper option for transforming a porch or patio is to create a tanning bed or a three-season room. Because these spaces lack insulation and heating, they are generally cheaper to build (for example, patio shielding can cost as little as $500, while a three-season porch can often be purchased for less than $10,000). While they wouldn’t count as formal bedrooms or anything and can’t be used in colder weather, they still add value and usable space to your home.

If you know how, a cheaper option for converting a tanning bed or a three-season room might be a DIY kit . They can complete the job for as little as $1,500 because they don’t include labor costs and usually only take a few days to build.

Create ledges or dormers

An affordable option to add some space to your home is a skylight or skylight . A ledge is a small addition to a room, sometimes up to two feet deep. They are usually supported by the house’s existing foundation, so they don’t require their own. Depending on the length of the extension, you can add several dozen square feet to your home’s living space, and costs range from $5,000 to $32,000, depending on the size and complexity of the project.

Adding a dormer window or two to your attic won’t really add many square feet, but it can turn an existing attic space into usable space by raising the ceiling height and adding windows. Skylights typically cost less than $20,000 and can turn a cramped attic into a sunny room.

Create an attic

If your home interior has at least one room with high ceilings, you can add some usable space by building an attic. This could be a DIY project if you really want to keep costs down and can provide you with office space or additional storage space without sacrificing existing floor space. Depending on how ambitious you are (is it just a bed platform or are you imagining a fully equipped office?), a loft in a room can cost you anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.

Add prefabricated barn / ADU

Finally, if you have space in your backyard, you may want to consider adding a tiny house (also called an extension living unit or ADU) or a prefabricated shed to your property. Tiny houses can cost as little as $4,000 if you build them yourself, and you can hook them up to the power grid, add plumbing, climate control, and beautiful finishes to create a freestanding living space. Be sure to check with your HOA or local government regarding permits and other requirements before clicking ORDER on an entire small home.