Most people feel their new home would not be complete without a guestroom. We disagree.
We briefly discussed this topic already when talking about optimizing floor plans… anyway, it is worth to address this issue in more detail since the decision to omit that guestroom can save you (and even earn you) a sensible amount of money.
I would say that building a guest room is a mistake and I strongly advise against it.
Provided you have enough land, I would suggest you build a guesthouse instead.
Here I am going to provide 5 sound benefits you’ll get by building a guesthouse instead of a guestroom.
Benefit #1
IT HELPS YOU GET INTO THE ‘HOME-BUILDING’ MODE.
A guesthouse is essentially a regular house… only smaller.
When you get ready for building a guesthouse, you are actually getting yourself into the full-fledged home-building mode. The only difference is that it’s happening on a much smaller scale.
Regardless of the size, the steps of the process are the very same required to build your main home:
- thinking & learning + figuring out what should go where;
- planning & budgeting;
- scheduling & managing;
- contracting;
- building.
When you go through this process with your guesthouse, you get a hands-on experience of all the aspects involved in self-building.
By getting yourself into that mode, you are essentially learning the intricacies of home-building. You will learn from your mistakes you will collect know-how and skills you can use later when you will start building your home.
This will help you save time and money on the build of the actual home.
Benefit #2
GIVES YOU THE ‘PERSONAL SPACE’ FOR HOBBIES AND STUFF.
Sometimes you need your own space.
Perhaps you love to meditate or maybe you are into painting, writing, working out, …
It is often hard to partake in these things with your entire family around. When everyone demands your attention, it can be pretty hard to find the time (and the place) to do your own things.
In fact, your home can get quite noisy and busy.
There’s the TV running in the background, children are shouting, someone is yelling… and stuff like that.
Distracting.
That’s why having a guesthouse detached from the main house acts as a “second home”, just outside your main home.
When the time comes to take time for yourself, you can simply step out of your home and “disappear” in your guesthouse for a fully-focused session of whatever you like to do.
Benefit #3
COMPLETE PRIVACY FOR YOU AND FOR YOUR GUESTS.
Your family has its own schedules and routines, and so do your guests.
Perhaps you like to wake up early and they don’t… or vice-versa.
There are countless scenarios where having guests in your own house can result in awkward situations, or simply make people uncomfortable.
When you can host your guests in a separate house, this kind of situation is kept to a minimum. The guesthouse is truly a private space where one can take a break every time the “discomfort” arises.
Your guests will truly love it and you’ll love to have one to offer them.
Benefit #4
YOU CAN ‘RENT IT OUT’.
Converting your precious guesthouse in a real source of passive income: this is definitely an interesting way of using your spare space.
If you do not use your guesthouse regularly, you can enlist it on Airbnb or booking.com and use it as a source of side-income.
Depending on your location and on the demand for rental space in your area, the guesthouse can pay for itself in just a few years.
Clearly, this is something appealing to many. It makes a ton of sense.
Benefit#5
LESS RUNNING COSTS.
If your guest-space is an empty bedroom in your house, it is hardly possible to forget about it and leave it closed and unattended.
As part of your home, it will demand heating and sometimes even cleaning. You can’t just ignore it.
Instead, when your guest-space is a separate little house, you can just switch everything off and forget about it for a while… although it still makes a lot more sense to rent it out to someone who needs it (see the previous point).
Conclusion
A smart owner can see that building a guesthouse has more benefits than building an extra room inside the house.
Once your guest house is ready, you’ll find yourself to enjoy it a lot more then you could have ever imagined.
…been there, done that. Highly recommended.DIY plan sets for Solo Hobby can be found in our E-store. The link to that can be found here.