We currently own a home with 1850sqft living space with 480 sqft garage all on one level on a flat lot in San Carlos. And we wanted to see which of the 2 options makes sense from both building perspective and also from real estate (selling perspective)
Build second story of 570 sqft (that’s the max we can go for our lot of 7500 sqft)
downgrade from 2 car garage into 1 car garage and add 200sqft from garage to living space (add one extra guest bed and bath in that 200 sqft)
Both the option will give us enough space, we are just debating which one is cost effective but also give us top price when we are selling the house compared to the amount we are spending now (we are worried making 1 car garage might narrow down the buyers as 2 car garage is norm in our area…we are in San Carlos hills)
Edit: this house has some foundation issues which we are anyway fixing and also remodeling the kitchen and bath and also moving some walls and reconfiguring the home
Thanks
Archie
You should verify your existing structure can support the weight of a second story without significant upgrades or replacement of existing walls. That might make the decision for you in terms of cost. Also, is there a logical place to put stairs to a new upstairs? You want to make sure it flows naturally and doesn’t end up looking like a poorly planned addition. You might need to do more rework of the 1st floor to achieve a proper design.
we currently are re-enforcing the foundation as the house foundation has some issues and we are remodelling the exiting house too and that is the reason why we are debating on these options so, we can remodel considering the future phase 2 if its worth it or just add 200sqft extra from garage if the second story addition feels not worth it
You are already doing foundation and framing. I’d do the major addition at that point. Consider if the second story is just the master suite or all the beds including some baths except for the inlaw suite downstairs. Also stealing 200 from the garage leaves a narrow room. It would end up looking like an office/spare room versus an actual suite.
yeah thats a good point that we might get tiny guest room w/bath in 200ish sqft. but how much loss will we be at if we go with one car garage while selling in san carlos hills? iam not sure how much energy or budget we will be left to build second story in phase after we are done with current renovation phase1…
and one more thing: our house zoning comes under unicorporated (we are ending up under san mateo county for planning/building instead of san carlos city for permits) and does anyone know how they calculate the amount of SQFt we can built based on lot? we have 7500 sqft lot and i think the max we can go is only 2420 sqft…donno on what calculations we ended up at this number. any insight would be great…im trying to contact the county on this but the calls always ends up to VM
Easy way to figure out what you may be allowed to build is to find some of the new spec homes in your neighborhood. They likely built right up to the limit. Of course this assumes you are in the same zoning and lots are comparable.
Homes with an added on on 2nd floor never looks right.
These homes with an added on top always takes longer to sell for less than original. Another choice is a complete tear down & rebuild if land carries a premium.
Option 2 blends better from appearance & cost wise.
I suspect you will not be allowed to reduce your garage to 1 car if you have 3-4 bedrooms. Check that first.
As for what Sam said, often true BUT with the addition on our house you can’t tell. the only tip-off is that the living room is 23 feet wide but only 13 feet deep which is pretty narrow. But I would NOT have known if someone hadn’t told me. They did an amazing job at extending the fireplaces up to the second floor using matching color bricks. They converted a bedroom into a new entryway and the stairwell. It’s a completely normal layout!