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20031123 Sunday November 23, 2003

Doubling the size of our house Marion (DU) House We love where we live in Denver right now. We originally bought this house because we wanted a rental property and it's close to the University of Denver (where I went to college). After living here for a couple of months, we discovered that the location absolutely rocks. It's 2 blocks from Safeway (grocery store), 2 blocks from Porter Hospital, 3 blocks from our bank. It has a couple liquor stores within a couple blocks and many restaurants within walking distance. The house is small, 675 square feet, but the lot is huge - 2.5 times the normal lot size. So we decided to investigate the idea of adding an addition onto the house. After talking with a few builders, we decided on one and the project starts one week from tomorrow. We're going to gut the current house and make it into 3 bedrooms. The new additional will be the same size as our current house and it's going to be one big open room - with a great room and kitchen. We're also tearing down our 1-car garage and building a 2-car garage in the alley. Exciting times - should be done by mid-summer next year. I'll make sure and take lots of pictures (and post them) as the project progresses. Posted in General at Nov 23 2003, 11:32:37 PM MST 6 Comments

Comments:

Good luck...we started rennovation on our house more than a year ago, and prior to that spent one year in planning, and we still aren't done with the construction. Be prepared for more idiocy than you can shake a stick at. And if someone starts jackhammering on your new footer don't just watch it happen. Oh, and all subcontractors are idiots.

Posted by Anthony Eden on November 24, 2003 at 10:39 AM MST #

Congrats, just make sure all your permits are in order.   City officials and rude neighbors love to muck with that type of stuff :-)

Posted by Keith Sader on November 24, 2003 at 01:09 PM MST #

Good luck.. I am in Los Angeles. The medium price for a house is 370K. What's it like in the Denver University area? We got great weather, but I don't think it's worth paying 370K for blue sky.

Posted by David Liao on November 24, 2003 at 05:10 PM MST #

What is it about this area and renovating old shacks? I think that the local builders/renovators must be spiking the water with something. I'm in the exact same situation, only a few miles to the north. I bought an ancient, 800 square foot closet of a house, on an oversize lot in North Boulder earlier this year. 20 minute walk to Pearl St. 10 minute bike ride to CU, right on the bus line. I hope to start renovation planning next year. Be thankful that you aren't renovating in the Republic of Boulder. They make you jump through more hoops than a circus animal. I must say though, I do envy that garage of yours! Jason

Posted by Jason Boutwell on November 24, 2003 at 05:36 PM MST #

David - the median home price in Denver is $220K right now - no where near L.A. that's for sure. It's a bit ridiculous in my area though - a 1600 square foot, remodeled house will go for 1/2 mill. We paid 210 for ours.

Posted by Matt Raible on November 24, 2003 at 06:01 PM MST #

Good luck with this! I hope your addition stays true to the original lines of the house! I just hate it when you see a classic house with a big nasty addition on it that just funks it all up. Yeah, that is what the previous owners of my 1918 house here in Minneapolis did, but I had little choice- location, location, location. We're thinking about tearing down the previous addition and putting it up right- or at least "skinnin" it right. I'll be watching for news!

Posted by Garret Olson on November 25, 2003 at 10:53 AM MST #

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Matt Raible is a Web Architecture Consultant specializing in open source frameworks.
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