Bonus living space: how to make your place bigger

Living in a place for many years gives you an opportunity to get your property mortgage free. Families, however, have a tendency to grow. Kids become older and need some privacy. In-laws need more care with extra space. The easiest way to upgrade your house is to transform the basement into a separate unit that could be used for parents or recently grown up teenagers. Sometimes the attic (especially a large one) is another option for a nice unit where you can move your kids to.

What can you do when you can’t extend your living space to the basement or attic (or already did it but need more rooms)? You could transform a garage into an apartment. Detached garage could be easily built into a two level unit. Of course you need all permits for a lot of electrical and plumbing projects. It’s a good idea to get an architecture plan for a wisely zoned layout. At the end of the construction you’ll get a nice income property or extra space where your grown ups could live separately. 

One more option for people who have a nice large backyard. It is called a backyard cottage. Technically you could build a cozy guest house behind your own one. Depending on location you can use that place as a long term renting out unit or as a vacation home for seasonal tourists. Many permits are required for such a project and we doubt you can build a two storey house but a small separate unit could bring some money into your pocket.

Those ideas don't work for condos unfortunately. There are still some interesting ideas on how to find some extra space in your apartment. And we’ll talk about them next time.