My house is a 60 year old cape cod. I have a walk up attic (the stairs are permanent, not the pull down kind) although the stair case is narrow and it curves. I currently have 2 bedrooms on the first floor. My attic is floored and there are a few electrical outlets up there. I will have to bring the AC/Heat up there as there is no duct work up there. I'm thinking about raising the roof to create 2 bedrooms and a bathroom or a master suite/bathroom upthere. I have tossed around differernt ideas: raising one side of the roof in a dormer fasion, raising the whole roof, or creating a different more victorian roofline on the entire house. I have NO idea what this wall cost me. Currently my attic is floored. I live in the philly area. My house is about 860 square feet. It's basically a box and all the weight baring walls are the exterior walls. Does anyone have any idea how much this will cost. At least a price range? How cheaply can I do this? What if I omit the bathroom?

Kim we can't begin to guess because we need more info. Are you planning on doing any or all the work or contracting out? What do you want to use to finish the inerior walls and the new exterior walls?

We will be doing some of the work ourselves. My brother in law is a carpenter and my boyfriend and his brother are extremely handy. I'm looking mostly at having the roof raised, a new roof put on (we can shingle if need be), and having the ductwork and plumbing brought up to the attic. I'm sure we are capable of tiling, carpeting, putting in the bathroom, drywalling, etc. I'm not looking at spending a ton of money as my house is a starter home, and we are looking to expand just in case we should have children in the next few years. My boyfriend owns a landscaping company and recently installed a gorgeous back yard including 3 tier waterfall and flagstone patio... we hate to leave the back yard if we were to have kids, so we assume we should look at raising the roof and staying a while longer. Ask away... I'll take all the advice I can get. I appreciate it.

There actually won't be much shingling to do with this kind of job. I'd get 3 bids from contractors to see what they would charge and how they plan to do the job. You can do much of the work yourself so tell the contractors to just raise the roof and install the side walls, I'd do both sides of the roof. You can then do the interior over time as money allows. Your furnace may not be big enough to handle the sq/ft so have a furnace company check that for you too.

Thanks. Any idea on what the cost may be. I believe my furnace is big enough. I asked that question when I installed the AC about 18 mo. Ago. I don't even have a ball park idea of what this would cost... The house is stucco. Do you know if it would easy to stucco the second floor to match (it is white) or would I have to put siding on the whole thing? Another expense?

Stucco would not be all that difficult or costly. It won't cost you a dime to get 3 estimates and they'd be far more accurate than my ballaprk figure of $60k.

By all means, save money by doing a lot of it yourself... but money spent now on getting the right look and design will increase the curb appeal (& resale value) of your house dramatically. Plus I'm sure there are code issues with how many square feet you can add, how high the new roof line can be, fire protection requirements, window requirements etc... and you'll definitely need a permit anyway. This is a long winded way of saying you'll need drawings.

Since you'll need drawings, I think your first step is to interview local architects/ designers and see if you find anyone you like who matches both your tastes and your budget. It won't cost a dime to interview them... and you'll be able to get a feel of how much the project will cost.

By the way, in our experience, the problem with stucco is matching the colour. Another option is to have a different treatment of the new addition (such as siding or shingles) - or use a belly board to separate new from old stucco.