Dr Joan, You are correct. My clients who have been asking for the ranch plans are mostly empty nesters or one child or a parent who is living with them who want easy access to the whole home even if in less than perfect health. This then also appeals to a wider range of potential buyers for resale. The house also appears to be larger on the lot and in my opinion adds to the percieved and actual value of the home. Both of these are generally ranch plan. The first having the bonus room over the garage and both having full or partial walkout. The first has much more potential finished space as there are 2 bedrooms and bath in the lower level as well as space ready to be finished off for wet bar, rec room, family spaces etc as time and budget allow. The flexibility and potential is very valuable to the owner and any future buyers. The pricing I spoke of was gained through extensive price shopping and great internet purchasing and a year of planning prior to construction. Your pricing seems very reasonable to me based on my experience and not knowing your details of finishes etc. The trick is keeping it that way. Up front its your plans, builder and checkbook...as you move along it becomes emotional...as in gee honey the carpet floor looks fine in the great room...But wouldnt the reclaimed Heart Pine wide plank flooring look fantastic ???? The key is doing your best to be honest and complete in your selections up front as possible.

@ live_wire_oak That website was very helpful. My next step is to talk to a contractor. @ debrak2008 Do you live in the Northeast? How much did this run you total or per sqft? @ Geoffrey_B I made the mistake of asking the original question with a very generic "...add value" component. My question should have been, "How much would it cost to add 800 sqft?" But yes, my plan is to rent the property for a few years and then sell it. The rents in Nutley are relatively high because of the school district so the people that live there are mostly families with children. This house, with 2 beds, 1 bath, and a makeshift bedroom in the attic is not going to obtain the rents of the comps without the modifications that I want to do. And believe it or not, this house was bad before I started. The improvements I've already made, including eliminating the large bushes in the front have already been received well by the neighbors. I don't think they're going to mind me adding value to the house, even with a basic addition in the back, which is not going to be visible from the street. For those of you not in the Northeast, access to school districts seems to be a very important issue in high population density areas (more so than in general). @ energy_rater_la How much did this run you because that is exactly what I am trying to decide on. I'm currently living in the attic in the dormer window areas. I have my bed, tables, and wardrobe up here and it seems to be holding up just fine. I think the previous owner was using it as his daughter's room. Here is a link that might be useful: Nutley to NYC This post was edited by MittySam on Thu, Jan 16, 14 at 22:25

I'm the OP. I'm also in the tri-state area, so yeah, expensive. My project will include taking down a load bearing wall, a bathroom remodel upstairs with all new plumbing, the kitchen with a new layout including a powder room. I'm being offered what I suppose is a reasonable enough price of ~$2,400. This will including an existing conditions drawing, from which you guys and cabinets dealers can help us work from. Then designs in progress, and then demo and final construction drawings once layouts are finalized. What it wont include is cabinet elevations, but I suppose I'll get that from the KD/cabinet dealers, many of which offer design work free of charge to drive sales. It's the structural and mechanical works, but not colors and finishes, etc. I'll be relying on you guys for that fun stuff ;-) One reason I want to go with an architect is so that when getting bids from contractors I'm comparing apples to apples. They'll know how to do the beam, what windows are going where, how to run the plumbing, how many lights and where, etc. These will also be the drawings I'll submit for local permits. And, I'm thinking if good drawings prevent one or two costly mistakes the money will be well spent. (Although the truth is, in old homes like this, once the plaster comes off the walls and you see what's really in there, all bets are off.) But having never worked with an architect before... any caveats or precautions I should consider? Anything I should be sure to ask for upfront?

"... planning to bring the drive up as high as possible now, though ... we don't want it so high that it starts to block that lower-level window on the left." Your problem with getting good feedback is going to be that you're starting this process without properly introducing people to the surrounding site. We have only a snippet of information ... more or less a theoretical house front. Not a complete front yard or a driveway or even a good picture that shows the land/house relationship. As it is, every solution offered is already limited by your own preconceived notions, which limit what you show us. We've been here before and didn't come to a conclusion that you got excited. The set-up now is little different. Whatever you do architecturally, outside of changing the main entrance to the basement floor, will make no difference insofar as solving the problem, which has not yet been clearly identified (the path from parking-to-front-door problem.) No one can investigate how changing the approach to the house might work toward solving your problem. Most other threads on the forum seem to reach a more or less successful conclusion because they involve a little planting or a simple problem. Here, the problem is much more complex, but the base information is threadbare. Like a newspaper that starts with the front page headlines, and then goes to article titles, and then on to elaboration of details, is how you should be presenting information. We should see the whole front yard at a distance, some sequential pictures that show the present approach, some wide span scenes (from slightly overlapping pictures) that show the area from at least 2, or maybe three different points of view, since there is topography involved. (Each point of view should be a complete scene ... not a disconnected picture.) A landscape architect could not assess and explore the issue with so little information to go on. I'm not trying to be a downer about your thread or issue, but trying to say if you want to be happy when you leave, you've got to produce enough information to work with.