Quote:
baitkiller - 4/15/2008 9:39 AM
There was some interest in recent thread about what it may cost for an addition. I will have about 140$ a square foot by the time this is finished. It is 900 sq.' floor space built to Dade County 140 mph code. I only shopped out about 15K in labor. The masonry work was traded for boat rigging and a survey. I also used a lot more steel and nails than called for. The deck is Brazilian Tiger wood and 700' sq. The kitchen cabinets and back splash is an example of what kind of $sandbags your wife can throw from the rafters.
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First, I think it looks great and I am sure that you got exactly what you wanted, and there is a lot to be said for that, especially if you like your house, its location, etc. (The deck looks awesome, btw)
However, it's also a great example of why NOT to buy a small house and plan on adding onto it later. I did that and discovered the hard way that the price of adding on in south florida can be a killer. So that addition was $130k? My 42 square foot addition (it's a long story) set me back about $6k by the time I was done with everything. (also about $140/sqft) I found out that the going rate for what I would call semi-skilled labor was anywhere from $250-500 per man per day for a 'homeowner' job. For the $50-75k it would cost me to legitimately add on another room, change the roofline, etc, I could have bought a bigger house to begin with and rolled the $ into my mortgage.
Ironically, due to the housing fiasco - you can now buy a 1800 sq ft leftover builder (never lived in) house in sw florida for $110-140k. ($75 a sq ft)
Next house I buy, hopefully, the roof and walls will be the size I want and where I want them. Everything inside is fair game to scrap, but the lesson I learned was that the less you have to do to the outside of a house, the better.
small house made large
