Renovate and Expand or Build A Brand New Cottage

Should I renovate and add an addition or should Demolish the entire home and go with an entire new home?

This is a question homeowners struggle with all the time, especially when it is someones cottage. A place where memories were made with children and family.

Other then the sentimental value of the existing cottage it becomes hard to justify spending the large sum of money to build a new cottage when its isn't used as much as your permanent home back in the city.

You should ask yourself some important questions and then think about the sentimental value of the place;

• Can you afford to build a new cottage?
• If you tear down the existing cottage will you still be able to build what you want on your lot with the current new building restrictions and codes.
• How much do you use your cottage? Would it be used more by the family and more of the year if it was properly heated and properly insulated?
• Would you consider ever retiring into the place when the time came?
• Are you planning to sell it when you no longer require it anymore?
• Will you be compromising on the layout and functionality of the cottage by only renovating and adding square feet instead of building new?
• If you were to change the configuration of the home with either an addition or a new build would you change the view that you currently have, for better or worse?
• Would this upset your neighbour's or would they be happy for the new look of your cottage?
• Do you require a lot more room and storage?
• You should factor in the energy saving's over the next ten years if you were to build a new cottage compared to keeping the older one even if its renovated.

The biggest thing you will have to deal with is the money issue, almost any building no matter in how bad a shape can be saved, the only barrier is the money, You should really look at the amount of money you are willing to spend on expanding and renovating, if that number ends up being fairly large then maybe you should just consider a brand new home.

One other thing about a brand new cottage is that you reduce your maintenance costs for the next 15 years to almost zero.

In the end your contractor can't tell you what to do only you can make that decision.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.