I'm no expert but I think it'll cost a fortune. New foundation, new roof, new eavestroughs, new duct work for the floor vent. Wouldn't the whole roofline have to change as a result? You wouldn't have that valley there anymore, I don't think.

The most expensive portion of any expansion is the first 2'. That's where all of the engineering and joining old to new happens. You'd be spending a LOT for very little return on space. You'd be better off planning a major addition for a family room or something like that and repurposing interior space for the kitchen. Even that is likely to be in the 150-250K range.

That appears to be a corner where two load bearing walls meet. Unless you are willing to keep the beam that must be sitting in that corner, and work around it this would be a really big deal change. From the exterior, you are messing with the roofline, and you have to consider how that will affect the look of the house from the two sides involved. The price would be completely out of proportion to the 4 ft.² gained. For the same amount of money you could probably add on an entire room. Why don't you start a new thread and post pictures of the house floor plan and a separate picture of the kitchen floor plan and let the design mavens offer you other suggestions.

It cost us like 10k for the same thing, but that was because we were building it from the ground up and that was a change. So, for an existing home.. yea, I suspect that would be a lot of money for very little return. I'd do it if you had expendable income and did not mind using it, because I am like you I like the symmetry of how it would flow.. but no way I would do it expecting to see a return equal to what you spent.

R

I'm at a loss to see how this could be done cost effectively.

Damn! I am a bit stunned and saddened but I suppose I have to accept it (and keep my money ;) ). I am coming off of a home sale with a decent chunk of profit, so my mind is running wild. Thanks for the hard-truth advice. These are mid-1940s homes, and I grew up in a neighborhood of 1980s customs, so the unusual smaller kitchens are new to me. Driving around the neighborhood reveal mostly tiny capes - mine was raised in the back, bless them - but I could only find one that had a similar front elevation. I might have to knock on their door to peep their kitchen layout.

There is no other "good" room to move the kitchen into - there is another bedroom on the first floor but it is separated from the dining room by a full bath. The dining room is actually kitty-corner to the kitchen, so I suspect it was converted from a bedroom. I actually wouldn't mind keeping a beam/short wall and pocketing the fridge and a cabinet in there, because the kitchen layout has the fridge and range right next to each other with no counter space and no way to put counter space unless you move an appliance. Moving the fridge off that wall makes a huge, huge difference. I'll definitely start a new thread for design options. Thanks all!!

Not moving the kitchen wall around does not mean you cannot make the kitchen bigger. For us, we took an old farm house and, even if we could not move the wall, we would have expanded the kitchen into the "breakfast nook" because, for me, having a dining room 6 ft away meant a breakfast nook was useless... imo.

R

That's exactly what I'm trying to do Russ! :) Basically, the nook is going bye-bye and it's getting more cabinetry and counters. It's just such an awkward layout with the cut-in that squaring the room would open up way more possibilities. The fridge as I have it planned now kind of sticks into the middle of the room. But I am not in the house yet (closing next week) so maybe the current relocation of the fridge won't be as big of a problem as I am imagining.

It is worth actually getting a real price. It won't be cheap but a lot depends on how it is built. If they can cantilever it (or use pilings) it is not as expensive as crawl space. For the roofline, you may need to have a slope on the interior as the most sensible solution is to continue the current roofline. In the end it will be very expensive per square foot but a good discussion with a creative contractor may be very helpful to focusing your thinking.

Might be better to add a new bathroom and rethink that section

It might be do-able to flip-flop the kitchen and the back bedroom, but that option is much, much less appealing to me, both in layout and monetary terms.

I wouldn't mind getting a few contractor opinions (or stop at one when they go "no can do!" lol). Joseph, what should I expect to pay for an opinion and/or estimate?

Jocelyn D,

Last year when I was in the process of hiring the kitchen designer, I told her that ideally we will like to have 3' bump out of kitchen. She quoted me $30K price just for bump out in addition to the kitchen renovation. I live in VA - DC metro area.

Needless to say, I dropped the idea of bump out and decided to spend the money on other parts of the house for renovation. Now the same designer is designing my kitchen, family room and powder room.

Happy remodeling!

Mindy

Holy cow Mindy! I am in a smaller city than DC metro (my 1300 sq ft house cost $135k) so I was hoping for $8,000-10,000 but that's still super pricey.

I've posted about the layout in a separate thread for those who want to see and opine on the interior! http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4219002/feedback-on-my-kitchen-layout-please

Joceylen D:

Unfortunately there are a lot of guys that will spend time estimating a job that isn't going anywhere for free. Tell them that you've been told that the job probably isn't going to be able to be done cost effectively so at least they'll know what they're getting into. If someone wants to charge for an estimate, the $300.00 range seems fair.

We were actually planning on renovating in either case so getting a ballpark for the option of bumping out was not a big deal esp as we had already had an architect figure out how to do it also offered to pay for consulting time.

In the end, the contractor who was helpful in working through the options was hired and is now doing a lot more work than we originally planned.

Working through options and costs was very useful in figuring out if we were on the same page as the contractor. A great contractor should be able to suggest cost effective solutions.

Spending a lot to correct a perceived problem leaves one at risk of sinking loads of cash into a home of which little to none may be recaptured when the home is sold. Are there compelling attractions to the current location or might this house be a good opportunity to make minor improvements and plan on finding an existing ideal home next time around?

I think paying someone for an estimate you probably know will be too much is a very nice and fair thing.

What I would add on to that is, if you decide to DO it, ask them to include the cost of the estimate, i.e. you pay only if they do not do the work. That way, everyone wins.

Also, alternatively, you can hire someone to do ALL the work and, as an option, for a small fee, ask for what it might cost to do the structural changes.

What "I" would do, if it were me, is not do the structural changes and just expand into that area... leave the walls the way they are and work within this "shape".. less cost, usually.

Would not know much without a layout drawing.

GL!

R

gramarows, this is a home that I plan on being in for a long time unless I meet someone and start a family. I'm single and buying by myself, so my budget could not accommodate all of the things I wanted (no pantry, no walk-in closet). But I did get many great things (size, location, overall style, big yard, front porch, nothing I have to immediately gut) that I did want. The market in my city is going crazy and I ended up at the top of my budget just to get this house - and had to beat 3 other offers to do so. To get a "better" house would easily cost $30k-40k more. I really love a lot about it and my decision to buy it is reinforced every time I cruise around Zillow! I looked at so many cramped Capes and weird ranches before I found this house. No house is ever perfect and it's not like this kitchen is impossible - just not ideal. My thought is if I spend a reasonable amount money to optimize the kitchen, it will not only be more workable for me living in it, but also help resale (way) down the line. $20k for this fix is not reasonable! :)

I may start with the contractor friend who just redid my parents' kitchen and see if he can give me a quick opinion. I'd like him to do some of the reno also, because he did a great job with my parents.

Russ, do you mean I could bump out into that space without actually moving the corner pieces? As in leave the structural corners/load-bearing sections in tact but create a space in there? Like so: