Decked out

In the 12 years that Lee and Denise Rufty have lived in their south Charlotte home, they've always enjoyed being outside. They had a deck, and it was nice. But last year they turned the deck into a real room.

What they wound up with is a cooking, fireside-sitting and entertaining area that extends their living space into the yard.

"It's almost like a little vacation spot outside your back door," Denise Rufty said.

In a down economy, some homeowners are deciding it's better to get more use out of their existing house - and yard - than to try to upgrade to a bigger one. Some builders are looking to deck building as a way to keep money flowing in tight times. And for others, like the Ruftys, embellishing a plain-Jane deck is a way to push the boundary of "house" out into the open air nearly year-round.

The couple hired Deckscapes of Pineville to do the job, starting with a single idea: creating a firepit. From that spark came a sweeping deck with a stacked stone gas firepit, landscaping and lighted trees. The Ruftys spent less than $20,000.

Charlotte natives, the Ruftys are used to the heat. But they put a retractable awning over part of the deck to cool that area and provide shelter for a flat-screen TV mounted on one wall. The television is protected by a waterproof cover. The firepit - the idea that sparked the entire project - is the focal point for the deck.

"In early fall, we congregate around the firepit and watch football," Lee said.

Adding a deck or other living space outside is "another flavor of the 'staycation,'" said Jim Curtis, the owner of building firm SpaceCrafters. "Instead of putting that $10,000 into going to Rome for a week or two, you're putting it in the backyard to enjoy it for years."

Mick Feduniec, whose company built the Ruftys' outdoor space, agreed. "People are staying put and saying, 'If we're going to stay here longer, let's put an outdoor room on."

Randy Carder, who runs Construction by R.H. Carder in southeast Charlotte, has worked in construction 25 years and spent much of his time doing tear-downs. Now, he's turned to remodeling to keep the cash flowing in tight times and has found he enjoys the work.

Something extra

"It seems most of the work I'm getting and pricing is for outdoor rooms, porches. Enclosed porches - I'm calling them sunrooms," Carder said. He thinks the interest comes from people wanting to squeeze more use out of existing space, "seeing they're going to be in their house for longer."

But when the time comes to sell, he said, a porch gives a house a little something extra. "All houses have a kitchen," Carder said. "An outside sunroom is a feature."

Simple wooden decks can run $2,500 to $7,000, Feduniec said, and outdoor rooms - fancier decks with features such as outdoor kitchens, or a screened porch - start at $15,000.

Some of the newer features include custom-designed, freeform fire pits and outdoor pool tables, such as those marketed by The Grill Doctor, a grill-sales and outdoor living space construction firm in Mooresville that has won awards for its designs. The pool tables, made of slate and Sunbrella-brand outdoor fabric, can be converted to dining tables.

For midrange deck projects, return on investment is fairly good. A deck addition running $10,000 to $15,000 has, over the last couple of years, tended to return 70 percent to 80 percent of its cost when the home is sold, according to the Remodeling Magazine's annual cost vs. value report.

That's a lower return than for smaller jobs such as replacing an entry door with a steel one or bigger projects like adding an attic bedroom, but still a better return than, for instance, adding a master suite.

The return for an upscale deck addition is significantly lower, dropping to just under 61 percent for a composite-material deck that costs about $38,000, according to the 2009 survey.

Not just money

But for people such as Carrie Wadlinger and Sherry Kinder of Denver, creating an outdoor room is more about settling in than cashing out. After they sold their home in Florida, they fell in love with the Lake Norman area and bought a 2,800-square-foot house. Shortly after they moved in the fall of 2008, Wadlinger fell down the stairs in the new home and broke both legs. The injury galvanized plans to transform the backyard.

"The deck was shaky. There were boards that were loose and the steps went straight down," Wadlinger said. "There were no pathways from the front. I couldn't even take a walk out there."

The pair hired Deckscapes and Whispering Pines Landscaping in Denver for the job, which went far beyond a simple deck. A split-rail fence, paver-stone pathways, an enlarged patio, parking pad, Victorian-style gardening shed, a screened porch with ceiling fans, a firepit and wide, shallow-tread stairs changed the home into a spot where Wadlinger - who said she has always loved moving to new places - plans to stay.

Wadlinger said she and Kinder spent about $60,000 on the deck and porch part of the project, more to add extras such as the shed and fencing.

"Our house went from 2,800 square feet to almost 4,800 [square feet] and really, the only time you can't use that space is if it's snowing and real cold," she said. "I'm not going anywhere."