The home addition process isn’t always easy – even for an experienced architect. This year, we added on to the front of our home with a living room expansion. Between torrential down pours every week & lumber prices skyrocketing, anxiety seemed to always be right around the corner. This 150sf addition was worth it in the end.
Because of the heavy rain & high temperatures in Louisiana, we built on to the outside of the house with the existing walls & (most of) the roof in place. This allowed us to stay in our home while the work was being done. As an architect & a DIY’er it’s important to know your boundaries. This addition was more than my DIY self could do alone. We decided to hire out on many of the larger items, to allow me to focus on the details that I wanted to be perfect. I spent many days watching the framers work – learning from how they build, but also checking to make sure they were following my plans. I found it hard for me to let go of the control that DIY has always given me & trust others to do it correctly.
My husband & I decided to do this addition in the spring for 2021 prior to buying the house a year earlier. We didn’t know then that a pandemic would make building material prices skyrocket! The wheels were already in motion when prices headed straight north. We found ourselves stuck in the middle of paying up to 3x the typical cost for lumber & materials. We started the project with a large contingency budget of almost 25% & we blew through that quickly. I will do a future post on the project budget for this addition.
Despite our efforts to keep the building cavity closed as long as we could, a heavy rain came through prior to the roof going on, & we got a surprise water feature in our living room / kitchen. A mix of an unexpected storm as well as a terrible roof tarp job by the hired workers created a situation that no home owner wants to be in. We woke up at dawn to rain leaking into the existing ceiling cavity & immediately jumped on the roof to lay the tarps correctly. My, “if you want something done right, do it yourself” mentality was at an all time high. In the end we were able to remediate the water by getting out all of the wet material, treating for mold growth, & running dehumidifiers for a few days. Problems come up in EVERY project. It’s important to stay calm (note to self) & know that any problem, big or small, can be fixed.
After we had the water issue cleared up, the project was smooth sailing to the finish line. We ended up replacing most of the ceiling in the existing living room. Sheetrock dust is incredibly difficult to get out, so we made sure to cover everything possible during this part of the process. The cost of some plastic sheets & a roll of masking tape will go a long way in the clean up process – trust me!
Before we installed the floor planks we floated the area between the existing living room & new addition. This made sure there was a perfectly smooth transition between them, as the new framing was just a hair above the existing. The floor product I chose was Traverse City Oak Laminate in a large format plank. Before this project I would have never recommended a laminate product, but this flooring was a cost effective & it created a high end look. Since I was installing the floor in a dry area, I was able to have a larger selection of products. I found that the laminate looked less plastic than the LVT (luxury vinyl tile) does & it created a warm/cozy feel. If budget restrictions weren’t a factor, I would have chosen an Engineered Hardwood instead.
By the end of the project, I was ready for the hired workers to leave so that I could get back to my typical DIY projects. It felt so good to stage this space knowing how far we came with it in just a few weeks. I wake up every day now & just stare at this room. I’ve still got a few items to finish, like the trim work, but overall this is becoming the living room of my dreams! I have future plans to build built-in book shelfs on either side of the mantel, but that will be a project for another day.
