Expert: Dave Johnson - 1/28/2008

Question
  We have a 1920's one-story over full basement ranch on a corner lot.  We want to build a master bath and walk in closet off the back bedroom, and also incorporate an attached two-car garage.  The original house is hip roof.  We are concerned about the house looking too long, even if we bring in the addition 2 feet. The original house is approx. 60' long and 30' wide. The back of the house (30') has the entry to the kitchen, an outside back door entry to the basement in the middle (and about 4 feet lower than the kitchen door, and then a window to a bedroom, which is where we want to add the bath and closet.  There is about a 4'drop in elevation from the current house to the ground where the garage would be.  Please let me know if I've left out any desired information.  Thank you!

Answer
Hi Paula,
First, if you are going to build off the end (30') of the house, other than the setback you mentioned, there is no way to not have it look longer.
Not knowing the layout of your house lot, its hard to visualize...but here we go...
How about making the bath/closet on the end as planned and have the garage in an ell shape away form the main building?  (wish we had graphics here)
Sounds like you would have a foundation or frost wall under the bath/closet and drop down to the garage floor elevation. And the basement entry would be in the garage.
I don't think we are supposed to swap e-mails here but if we could, you could send me a floor plan etc, and I could
see better what to suggest.
Dave