Additions: An American Tradition

From our nation’s earliest days, Americans have been adding on, enlarging homes, barns, and outbuildings to accommodate their needs. As New England families prospered, their timber-frame homes sported sheds or lean-to additions, or even attached clapboard twins. Mountain dwellers expanded the modest log cabins called cribs or pens by sandwiching them between two sheds or by doubling them up in such colorfully named pairings as dogtrots (two cribs joined by a breezeway) or saddlebags (two cribs flanking a massive central chimney). This tradition is alive, and healthier than ever among homeowners today.

In these days of urban density and housing shortages, a structurally sound home in an older, close-in suburb is a treasure not lightly parted with. These homes often have generous lots and large rooms, are well-constructed of durable, high-quality materials and boast a distinct architectural style complemented by detailing and decorative elements that newer homes may lack.

If you’re lucky enough to own such a home, you may be loath to give it up despite your need for additional space. If you’ve been feeling cramped, you’ve probably been thinking about your options. Should you try to rearrange your furniture, perhaps build in some storage space, and make do? Should you sell your home and look for a larger one? Or should you consider expanding the house you already own?

The Tristram Coffin, Jr, house shows clearly that adding on and changing the style to update or “modernize” are traditions deeply rooted in the American past. Eight generations of the Coffin family lived in this house in Newbury, Massachusetts, from 1653 through 1883.

Should You Add On?

How do you decide whether adding on makes sense?

There are many factors to consider. Some of those factors, such as the structure and condition of the house and lot, legal restraints like zoning laws, and the economics of adding on, can be weighed and measured. Other factors are very personal: your feelings about the house itself and about the neighborhood, for example. We’ll look more closely at these factors in the next section.

Also consider the stresses associated with construction of a major addition. Adding on demands a large commitment of time and money, and it will almost certainly disrupt your daily routines. Exterior walls may have to be removed or broken through; part of the roof may have to be torn off; and there will undoubtedly be plenty of dust, debris, and other inconveniences associated with the demolition that generally pre cedes adding on. If this kind of major disruption would be hard to handle, buying a new house may be the best way for you and your family to meet your needs for more space.

The gallery section of this guide tells the stories of fourteen homeowners across the country who have added much-needed space to their homes. These real-life examples, with their accompanying plans and photo graphs, will give you an idea of the limitless possibilities for expanding your home.

Options for gaining space

Adding on doesn’t necessarily mean constructing a new wing or an entire second story. Before you decide that a major addition is the only answer, let’s take a look at a few small options that may meet your needs.

Small changes for a big difference

Sometimes that cramped feeling has more to do with lack of light and ventilation than it does with too little space. The simplest of additions— bump-outs—can solve this problem. Bump-outs are exactly what they sound like—mini-extensions of floors, walls, and roofs that bring a feeling of spaciousness to otherwise confined spaces.

Adding a bay—a windowed extension that begins at the floor of a room—both extends floor space and brings light into a room. A double- story bay can scale the walls of a two- story home. A greenhouse or sun- space addition—really only a large bay—can add substantial space to a room without becoming a room in itself. A bay window and window seat that projects from the structure above ground level does not have to expand floor space to create a feeling of elbow room in cramped second-story quarters.

Adding a gable dormer to a pitched roof can open up a tight second-story room. A shed dormer extending the length of the roof provides even more light and , by improving headroom, increases us able floor space.

Don’t overlook “forgotten” space where wings of the original house join each other. A corner enclosure here can sometimes expand two rooms at once.

If your children are doubled up two to a bedroom, or if the living room is always a mess because there’s nowhere else for the family to congregate, however, bump-outs won’t meet your needs. You’ll have to add real floor space to your home.

Substantial add-ons

At first, home design may seem extremely complex—after all, the houses in plan books all look different. When you examine homes more closely, however, mentally stripping them of their porches, roofs, and the decorative elements that give them character, you begin to realize that they have one thing in common. They’re all basically arrangements of modular boxes: square and rectangular forms joined in such a way as to please the eye and encourage efficient use of the space they enclose. Enlarging a house simply involves adding one or more modules to the original layout.

Adding on is a bit like a child’s game of blocks. If you enjoyed constructing buildings out of blocks and making castles in the sand as a child, you may find planning a major addition the most fun you’ve had since you graduated from games to business plans and household budgets.

To a good extent the size, shape, grade, and soil of the lot on which a house sits determine the location and configuration of an addition. The structure of the house also plays a part, as do local zoning ordinances and the amount of space you need. You may be able to add out, add up, or wrap an addition around the existing structure. On the other hand, the constraints of your lot, house, and local zoning may give you only one choice.

Knowledge of the basics of architectural style and design are key to whether an addition will enhance the appearance of a house or forever look tacked on. Section 3 introduces some basic design principles, and ,ill help you recognize your home’s architectural style. But the best way to begin thinking about enlarging a home is to start looking at houses much as if they were a series of building blocks. Strip each house you see down to its basic components and observe how the architect or designer arranged the various shapes into a pleasing configuration. Then apply the ideas you collect from this kind of analysis to your own home.

The simplest single-story houses (cottages, bungalows, and ranches) can be viewed as squarish or rectangular boxes. Larger story-and-a-half and two-story homes are the product of stacking these modules on top of each other, turning them on end, or joining them on one or more levels to make L-, U-, or T-shaped patterns.

Architects add interest to these basic shapes by such devices as bisecting the sides of square boxes to turn them into octagons. A close examination of the homes around you will reveal other tricks of the trade.

The illustrations below represent the kinds of homes you see every day: single-story, story-and-a half, and two-story versions. You’ll probably find an example similar to your own home, which you can use as a starting point for your planning.

As you look at what others have done with their homes, you’ll begin to see the potential of your own home more clearly. The sections that follow will give you pointers for planning add-ons that respect the integrity of the original structure while meeting your unique needs for expanded space.

Above left: An 8- by 14-foot window retrofit on this California ranch house provides an area for reading and relaxing. Because an exterior wall was removed, it also adds light and airiness to the remodeled kitchen. The owner wanted the window retrofit to improve energy consumption. The conductor, Hoddick, Berry, and Malakoff suggested the additional improvements after calculating the benefit of new windows versus costs and the additional benefit that could be gained by adding the sunroom. Above right: This weekend and summer house, near a harbor formed by the mouth of a river opening out to Long Island Sound, sat in a coastal flood zone. Before adding on, the owners decided to move the house to a slightly different position on a higher foundation. The house was remodeled with one addition to provide a new entry and stair-hall (center) and another to provide an enlarged living room.

Above: New decks were added on the front and side, and a small breakfast deck was created opposite the bedrooms on the second floor.

TYPES OF ADDITIONS

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