hi i have recently inherited a property in a nice suburb in south east melb.
the block is 560qm with a 3 bd / 1 bthroom brick veneer (1950's clinker). solid oak floors and structurally sound. looking to have it restumped, rewired and new windows throughout. the house as is is worth around $850k
i am tossing as to whether to put a second story on the property (which would make it a 4bed / 3 bath house – the master would have a WIR and ensuite, downstairs powder room and upstairs 3bed and1 bath) with an open plan living / dining / lounge (which can be achieved by removing 3 walls). this is quite extensive and looking at $200k of work
OR
knockout most of the back wall and add a 70qm extension (11m wide by 6m deep) which would give a large open plan kitchen/dining/living area with an outdoor alfresco and bifolds. i would however only have 3 bedrooms (one with WIR and ensuite) and a second large bathroom and only one living area. the cost would be $150k for this
the advantage of second story is i retain a very large back yard (255 sq m) and have 4 bedrooms (but a smaller living area downstairs). the advantage of the extension is cheaper and i end up with a much larger living / dining alfresco area (which seems to be very popular now) but only 3 bedrooms
my plan is to live in the house for a year (or two) then sell. dont want to overcapitalise so hoping that i can make some money on the work.
for resale purposes, am i better off spending the extra money and putting the scond story (to retain the yard) or spending less and keeping it single story?
thanks
cowenan wrote:for resale purposes, am i better off spending the extra money and putting the second story (to retain the yard) or spending less and keeping it single story?
For resale purposes….this is a phrase we hear a lot!
In my experience a fourth bedroom is more often about having a utility space (home office, hobby room, workshop, guest room) than about actually having four bedrooms. Demographically speaking, there's not much demand for houses with four or more bedrooms, because there aren't so many large families.
So my advice would be to think about alternative methods of incorporating this type of utility space, and here's a couple of suggestions:
- Use the roof space or create a mezzanine for a home office.
- Make the garage bigger to incorporate a utility space there.
- Consider building over the garage as a home office or teenager's pad.
- Connect outdoor and indoor areas in such a way as to blur the boundaries a little.
Good luck with the alt/add.
Im interested in doing a secont storey extension as well. Just wondering where you got that quote from?
hi there i did go ahead with the second story option. went with a company called chatsworth constructions in melbourne.
Hi cowenan
How much did it cost you with Chatsworth for building the second storey. I am looking at doing the same thing for my house but just wondering the cost involve.
Can you pls put an update on this
regards
pks
hi there pks
the building cost with chatsworth was $160k. this included design, planning, permits then demolition (removal of all interior walls and roof) adding a second story with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and a void through to the ground floor. it also included turning a bedroom on the ground floor into a WIR and ensuite. and removing essentially all existing internal walls and beaming over to create a large open plan living area. as well as replastering the entire existing house.
however, the total cost to completion was closer to $280k. the additional cost was made up as follows. restumpting $5k, new kitchen (applicances, ceaser stone etc) $25k, electrical througout ($9k), rendering (second story was made of poly and the ground floor brick was also rendered) $8k, replaced all existing windows with new windows and added additional windows and double doors $13k. bathroom (2) fitout $6, tiles $3k, new carpet $6k, floating floor $6k, large deck in the rear $6k, painting $2k (did this myself so it was just cost of paint), new gutters and spouting for existing house ($2k), new plubming gas etc.
as you can see the cost adds up! my budget was about $220k so $280k i guess isnt too bad as i upgraded the quality of alot of things (eg kitchen, floors etc).
also still need to do the driveway and fence so probably another $20k for all that……
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