Who doesn't want a new master bedroom suite, or a new, larger kitchen or garage, a new family room, or an extra bedroom? Your-Builder.com excels at additions to homes. There is an art to enlarging a home, while at the same time making the home beautiful to look at, rather than just bigger.
We modified the home pictured below in 2007, for a cost of about $40,000. This included the addition of the new deck, with its new extended roof, and new concrete patio below. Also included were all new windows, new siding, new brick front, with rock included, new concrete drive with ten-car parking, complete new roof over the existing house, new bathroom, new floor in the kitchen and dining room.
Before
After
We modified the home pictured below in 1991, for a cost of about $130,000. This addition resulted in such a dramatic change in the appearance, that it is difficult to be sure that it is the same house. The process of changing this house is illustrated below. Basically, this project consisted of the addition of a three-car garage at ground level, with four new bedrooms above it on the second floor, and two new bedrooms plus a living room on the third floor. The original bedrooms, on the second floor, were converted to a second living room, and a laundry room.
Before
After
That sure was an ugly house to start with. The project began with removal of the enclosed second-floor porch from the front of the house, and then the installation of the concrete foundation for the garage, to the left. The right side of the garage is 24 feet deep, but the left side is 48 feet deep, making it a three-car garage, even though only two single doors show in front. Note that your-builder.com used garage doors that are ten feet wide, rather than the nine or even eight foot doors used by most other builders. Almost any driver can get into and out of these garage doors easily, even with a large car.
Although you don't notice it from the photos, this house is set into a hill. The left and rear wall of the garage are therefore concrete.
In this photo, you can see the garage framing. Your-builder.com used 2X6 walls for the framing, rather than the thinner 2X4 walls which are standard for most builders. Even more notable is the large steel beam running from the front of the garage toward the rear. This beam was known as a "16W36" meaning that it is 16 inches tall, and extra sturdy. The reason for using such a large beam is to eliminate the need for a pole in the middle of the garage. The front section of this garage is 24 feet by 24 feet, and there is no pole in the middle, even though there are two floors of living space above it. Sixteen years later, there is absolutely no sign of any settling, sagging of this structure, or even cracking of the drywall.
In this photo, you can see that the second floor has been added above the garage. The roof has been removed from the original house, and a new, steeper roof has been installed over the entire house. This allows the third floor to be used as almost 1000 square feet of living space, with a ceiling height of nine feet.
Here you also see the beginning of the brick work. There is a concrete patio in this area, with a deck on the second floor, above it. The deck will be supported by brick arches, and will have a brick wall all the way around it, for privacy.
Here you see further progress on the brick work. Many people have asked how these arches were constructed. You can see here that we used circular forms to support the bricks while they were laid. When the mortar hardened, we removed the forms, and the bricks supported themselves. There are three arches in front, and one on the right side, which you can't see in the photo. The side arch is elyptical rather than circular, because it is wider than the front ones. Making arches like that one requires a knowledge of mathematics, including geometry, in order to do it properly. We have a degreed engineer on our staff for these kinds of projects.
As these arches were built, the columns supporting them were made hollow, so that the water falling on the deck above can flow down the inside of the columns, and out the front at the bottom, almost invisibly.
Here you see the finished house again. Now you notice that there is a deck above the arches, and a brick wall around the deck. There is a column of bricks between the garage doors, in front. This column is filled with concrete, and is for the purpose of protecting the house from clumsy drivers, if any should happen to visit.
Notice that your-builder.com installed the bricks all the way to the roof, rather than cutting corners and only going part way. Notice that your-builder.com installed bricks above all of the windows and garage doors. This requires the purchase and installation of steel members to support and stabilize the bricks. Your-builder.com spent the extra money to do the job properly. Finally, you may notice that where the side wall of the house meets the roof, on both sides of the garage, the brick steps out sideways about two feet right at the roof line. This also required the purchase and installation of steel members to support these bricks. Your-builder.com could have saved a few dollars and neglected to install the steel and bricks in these two areas, and instead could have built some wooden boxes covered with siding, like almost every other builder would do. But your-builder.com, in this 1991 project, and on every project since then, never cut corners. We want your house to be as beautiful and durable as possible.
In this final photo, we show you the view from the new deck, above the arches, looking out toward the front yard. The driveway is almost ready for concrete in this photo. The small trees which you see in this photo are as tall as the house today, sixteen years later. The house is as strong, durable, and beautiful as ever.
If you want to improve your home, then your-builder.com would like to help.
