We are looking at a new house. We are a large family so need BOTH large living space AND 4 or 5 bedrooms, would like a large yard, and are on a budget. Finding something in our price range is difficult, and frankly, without driving an hour outside of the city, just about impossible.

So we found one that has almost everything we need, but it's a little shy on living space. However, the house has both a covered downstairs patio and a covered upstairs deck. If we enclosed one of them (probably upstairs one, who really uses upstairs decks?) the house becomes almost ideal for us.

It is completely covered by a roof, and two walls are already there. It's open on only two walls, one of which is about 7 ft wide and the other probably about 12 ft wide.

Assuming that the A/C unit could handle the added room, any idea what we might expect enclosing the room to cost? I'm thinking no windows on the short wall, and probably 1 or 2 on the long wall. I think I could do flooring myself, and would do the simple things like trim, painting.

I'm of course not looking for a quote, but just looking for general ideas. I'll try to link a picture.

It's off a hallway.

Good point... it would not be a problem to lose those windows, inside is the "top of the stairs foyer" that houses all seem to have these days, but it's not really big enough to call a game room. There is natural light from other windows. Recycling them though, that would be awesome.

5-10K is kind of what I was thinking. That seems to be the general guidance from online. But estimates varied greatly depending on if you classified it as screened in porch (cheap, and no, this is Texas)... a sun room (maybe) or an addition. The addition numbers got very high in some cases, but I just didn't think this looked like it would be that big of a job.

How many sq ft is that porch area?
How big is the existing house in sq ft?

Are there one or two hvac units?

What size are they?

You can look at the model number on the tag of the out door unit for the tonnage. 2 ton starts with 24, 3 ton 36, 4 ton 48

If the unit is already maxed out you will probably have trouble cooling with the additional porch sq ft.

The house is currently about 3000 sq ft and that porch is about 180 sq ft. Do not know the rest yet.

What is the enclosed space going to be used as?

Do it right if you do this, usually you can tell when this has been done and its not b/c of the great end product.

Your profile says Arlington, so I'll leave this rec here:

Gary Bullard - Phoenix Custom Homes and Remodeling
www.phoenixchr.com

He built our patio cover last year and I was extremely pleased with the process, customer service, and the end product. We'll probably be using him in the next year or so for a kitchen remodel. He primarily works the Mansfield/Arlington Area.

Here is what he built for us:

My father has 20+ years experience in room additions/sunrooms. He has moved on to other ventures (semi retired), but for family/friends he will do a couple additions a year. If you want some 3rd party advice, or are interested in having him do it all together, shoot me an email @ eafulco@yahoo.com