Video: 4 Ways to Augment Space in Your Home

SAN JOSE — Host, Sarah Rutan: As life circumstances change, you may find your home is no longer large enough to accommodate your needs. Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can augment your existing space. Today we’re in San Jose with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Jim Kabel of Next Stage Design & Build to learn more.

Jim Kabel: As our lives change, quite often we find our homes no longer meet our needs. Quite often with growing families, kids moving out or back in, senior parents moving in, or just planning for our own aging in place, the way our home was designed may not have the space that we need to accommodate our lives going forward. It sometimes makes more sense to find ways of creating or finding more space in your existing home.

So, there are four ways to do that. One is, find ways to maximize space. This can be through better organization products that are available as aftermarket units that you can use to better organize a closet, better organize your kitchen or bathroom. Also adding lighting really makes unused spaces or darkened spaces much more accessible and much more functional.

Second way is to reconfigure space. As a design-build company we’ve worked with a number of homeowners to help them reallocate space to get them that larger pantry, that larger kitchen, that walk-in closet, or bigger master bathroom, or laundry room that they’ve been looking for for a long period of time.

Third way is to convert unused or hybrid space. This is space that may be partially outdoors. Could be converting an attic or a basement into finished space, could be adding a dormer or bump out – a number of different options that enable you to capture space that wasn’t properly utilized before. Converting unused or hybrid space can be one-third the cost of adding new space to your home.

The fourth option is adding space. So, this would be adding a detached or attached addition to your home, which can be the most costly, but also provide the most flexibility if you can meet the city requirements. No matter what option you choose, a good solid design-build company can help you evaluate the pros and cons, the different costs involved, and help you make a good decision for today or tomorrow.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.