When you’re building your home, you have a number of crucial decisions to make. How many rooms? What material will you use? How are you going to install the plumbing and electrical systems? But perhaps one of the largest and most notable questions you’ll have to ask yourself is how many stories you want your house to be. A multi-story home may seem like a lot, especially if you’re trying to live a minimalist lifestyle, but adding stories to your house is a smart long-term investment. Let’s examine how.

Cost Effective to Build and Live In

For many, the instinct may be to build a single-story home in order to save money. However, that’s not actually the case. As Bensonwood points out, two story homes and taller average out to be less money per square foot. The reason being that the largest costs in building a home often are excavation. For the same square footage that a single-story home would have in relation to a multi-story home, your excavation costs will go up drastically. Building up instead of out is a much better way to get bang for your buck. Not just that, but they’re more energy efficient to live in as well. With a larger surface area to heat, a single-story home is going to cost more to heat.

Better Functionality For Your Family

In The House Shop Plan’s “Building Up Versus Building Out,” they breakdown one of the most prescient factors for adding more stories to your home. In short, it comes down to functionality. Trying to manage your home and family in one story comes with its own sets of problems. Being able to designate simple ideas like bedrooms being upstairs and your living space being down stairs is a luxury only known to multi-story homes.

Having a second story gives you more possibilities to design your life the way you want. You’re not constrained to a single layout that you have you to move across. It leaves room for you to rearrange and create a better living experience. Not to mention, you’re likely going to get a better view with a taller home as well.

Overcoming Obstacles with a Home Elevator

One of the things that makes single-story homes so appealing, especially to baby-boomers, is ease of mobility. Without stairs to deal with, you might think that you’re saving yourself to energy and issues that come with another story. However, a single-story home actually will mean more walking distance across your home so if you have a family member that has issues getting around, a single-story won’t necessarily resolve that.

By installing a home elevator, you can minimize the effort and problems of building up. With the costs you’re saving by building a second story, an elevator isn’t totally out of scope. Celtic Elevator can help install a home elevator that will ease the burden of getting around your house while also adding to the value of your home.

Think you’re ready to make the leap to a second story and add a home elevator? Reach out to us today and we’ll help find the right option for you.