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Remodeling Design Dilemma Exterior

help designing a garage/bedroom side addition for split entry home

5 years ago

We have a 1960's split entry house in a suburb outside of Boston. We are not able to add to the back of our house so instead, we would like to put an addition on the side of the house. We would like add the length of a 2 car garage to the exisiting garage with additional bedrooms/laundry above. The width of our house is 24'.

Any ideas how to add curb appeal to this addition? I like idea of adding a portico to the front door to add some balance but otherwise, I'm having trouble visualizing what this addition might look like.

Any ideas or sketches would be much appreciated!

Featured Answer

PRO

Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design

5 years ago

Actually, you don't need ideas before going to see an architect. They hear your needs and create accordingly. This will have to be delicately because it's already a garage heavy home and doubling that will only enhance it.

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Comments (13)

Jenn TheCaLLisComingFromInsideTheHouse
5 years ago
Is there room for that on your lot and will the city allow it? :p
littlefeet thanked Jenn TheCaLLisComingFromInsideTheHouse
houssaon
5 years ago
What a few people who own homes like your's who want to expand do is add another level above the living dining and kitchen floor. Plenty of space for a large master, bath and laundry.
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OK, so like this, then? The design challenge is that big empty space above the door, so I faked a window up there. (Although, due to the lack of symmetry and different heights of the bottoms of the windows from left section to right section, perhaps an oval window above the door would break up the three sections better. The three sections being the section to the left of the door, the door section, and the section to the right of the door - we ignore the garage section in this comment.) The palladium I drew would end up fighting with the asymmetry left side to right side. An oval would not be mimicking either side, if you know what i mean.) And don't ever feel the need to apologize for split levels, they have some really awesome use of space due to this (BIG windows and lots of daylight in the lower level). You have a beautiful home, beautifully kept. On getting notices of replies: you have to go to PREFERENCES and "allow for other users to email you." If this feature is turned off, then you will not get notifications of new posts. This post was edited by beautybutdebtfree on Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 19:43
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M B, I almost wrote the same thing earlier this morning about the narrow lot comment. A 100 ft wide house likely sits on a 120 ft or 130 ft lot, which is pretty generous considering the typical suburban lot around here. We live on a 136 ft wide lot, and granted our house is only 65 feet wide, but on the driveway side there is enough space between our house and our neighbor to squeeze in another house! Our last house was on a 50 ft wide corner lot, meaning we had a 15 ft setback on the side street (and 5 ft setback on the other side lot line). Now that is narrow! One challenge for any plan is going to be balancing the 3 stall front facing garage with the rest of the house. Ideally the garage is setback at least slightly from the main body of the house. But if a plan like the one that the builder provided had another garage stall added, it would really start to set the house out of balance. Better to be designing with the 3 stall garage in mind from the start.
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littlefeet
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you for your comments. Yes, we have plenty of room in our side yard for expansion.

My car enthusiast husband needs more garage space so he would not be interested in going above the LR/DR.

The extra room that would be created above the garage we would like to use to enlarge the Master BR, MB, closet, add an office, laundry and keep the 2 BR's.

I was wondering about angling the addition forward a little instead of coming straight of the side of the house?
J Kay
5 years ago
I would hire an architect for a design.
littlefeet
Original Author
5 years ago
We will need to hire an architect for this project but it's nice to have ideas in mind before we get started
roarah
5 years ago
I found having too many ideas of what I wanted in my addition to be harmful not helpful. I became disappointed when my dreams never meshed with reality or my budget. Meet with the bank first than the pros and be up front about your true budget and then come here for opinions if needed.
littlefeet thanked roarah
User
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
When spending 400-700K of your hard earned money, it’s always best to start with the bank to see if they’ll give that to you, and then a real estate agent to see if you’d ever get any of it back way down the road when you sell.
littlefeet thanked User
PRO
Brickwood Builders, Inc.
5 years ago
Go up to Stories and Advice Tab at top of page. Click on Before and After. Once it comes up, enter Split Level Remodel in the houzz search bar. Some interesting remodels that may give you some idea of what is possible.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/split-level-exterior-revamp-dsvw-vd~996275?n=25
littlefeet thanked Brickwood Builders, Inc.
Judy Mishkin
5 years ago
do a google image search of 4 garage house. while there isnt much of a way to avoid a 'large garage with attached house' if you have all 4 doors showing, some ways are def better than others.
littlefeet thanked Judy Mishkin
User
5 years ago
Do you have room for the new garage to be side-loaded so that you are not faced with additional garage doors? And if you can side load the new garage, can you tandem it with the existing garage to eliminate all front facing garage doors?
littlefeet thanked User
functionthenlook
5 years ago
Would you husband be opposed to a tandem garage? With a good architect and builder and of course $$$ you could build on and have a side facing garage. The garage would still fit 4 cars, but just tandem through the new garage into the old garage. They can fill in the current garage door and make it look like it is part of the house and not just a filled in garage door. Remove the old driveway and re-landscape. And your house would not look like all garage.
littlefeet thanked functionthenlook
littlefeet
Original Author
5 years ago
thank you all for your thoughtful comments. Regarding the tandem garage, it might be a possibility but would definitely add considerable money to the project. It's worth exploring.

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