The Nightmare Before Christmas Room Decor

How to Add a Room to Your Home

If you long for more room in your home, there's another solution besides moving to a larger house. Build a room addition in any number of ways to your existing structure. There are some surprising ways to accomplish building on to your home.

The Traditional Addition and Bump Out

The national average to build an addition on to your home costs over $43,000 add or minus $20,000 or so, according to HomeAdvisor.com. So it might be wiser to add a room to your home instead of moving to a larger home, which is a more costly venture. An addition will look and feel like a natural part of your home if it's designed and built well.

A less costly option is a bump-out. A bump-out typically adds a few square feet to an existing room, usually with a simple foundation for lower build-outs. Adding a bump-out is for professionals and serious DIYers with building know-how to deal with permit issues, setback requirements and all the other legalities and codes.

Add a Screened Room

If you live in a region with moderate climate, build a screened room on top of a patio or deck. A patio enclosure is flexible. It can be converted into a three-season sunroom by clipping on windows over the screens, and additional electrical raceway posts turn screened rooms into year-round rooms. These options are part of kits typically installed by professionals.

Finish Your Basement or Attic

Pulling extra space out of thin air is doable if you already have an unfinished basement or attic just crying out to be refinished into living space. Here are some considerations if you're thinking of turning dark, dank spaces of your home into usable rooms, according to ThisOldHouse.com:

Codes: Most town codes require that at least half of a finished attic is seven feet high and seven feet wide.
Insulation: Any activity that happens in the attic will likely reverberate throughout the house if you have weak insulation and floor joists.
Inspection: Test your basement for moisture, rot, sagging floor joists and proper ventilation.

Finish Or Build Up Your Garage

Don't forget the space in or above your garage. With careful planning, it could be a goldmine of extra living space. It's best to have an architect design the space so it blends in well with your existing home and creates the best curb appeal, says ThisOldHouse.com. An architect and engineer will need to inspect the framing, existing structure and foundation to make certain an addition, along with heating/cooling and plumbing, is viable.

Build a Tiny House

Join the tiny house movement. A tiny home has a square footage of between 100 and 400 square feet, according to TheTinyLife.com. There are plenty of small homes to build yourself on your own property, but, you need to check your town's zoning, building permit and code laws to see if a tiny house is legal to add to your plot. A tiny house is one of the most inexpensive homes to build if you're up to the task.

Another option is a prefabricated backyard office shed. Homeowners use backyard sheds as extra guest and rental space, according to Studio-Shed.com, makers of office sheds.

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