Adding on to an Existing Home Structure

Review the options you have to finance the addition, and see how much money you'll be able to spend. You could take out a second mortgage, a home equity loan, a standard loan, use your savings to pay for the construction or a combination of these options. Also talk to a Realtor or home assessor to get an estimate of how much your addition might increase the value of your home. Figuring out the return on the money that you're investing in the addition is a major factor to consider.

Decide what the addition will be used for, where exactly on your house it will go, and if you'll be remodeling other areas of your house as part of a bigger renovation project. The location of the addition will be something to consider; for example, if you're building up and adding to the second floor, you won't put the kitchen in the addition, but a first-floor addition might include the kitchen area, which would free up your existing kitchen area for a different use. That, in turn, would require renovations to an existing part of your home.

Go to your local zoning board to find out the zoning requirements for building the addition and get any permits or variances that you'll need for the construction. The building codes are in place for health and safety issues. They also act to prevent a homeowner from doing construction on his or her property that would cause the values of the surrounding homes to go down. Failure to get permits and/or meet zoning requirements can lead to costly fines, and in some cases, you could be forced to tear down what you've built.

Design the addition and any other renovations. You could do this with a computer-aided design program, but your best bet would probably be to hire an architect, who would professionally design a structure that would meet all building codes while being able to give you the addition that you want.

Hire a contractor. With an investment this big, shop around for one. In addition to getting price quotes, do research on them. Check with the Better Business Bureau or your state attorney general's office to find out if there are any civil or criminal complaints against them. Ask them for references from previous customers, and talk to the people for whom they've done work. If they refuse to give references, or try to duck out of it, that should raise red flags for you. Doing a little homework can save you a lot of headaches in the long run.