Our cute little ‘home sweet home’ back in July 2012. (thanks Google!)
(look how little the trees are!!)
This blog/journal is going to take a twist for the next couple of, few, several months as I/we return to the blogosphere after a lengthy absence.
Last night, For the umpteenth night in a row, I went to bed with my head so very jam-packed full of thoughts, ideas, fears, dreams, emotions… (why do they always pile on at 11+pm at night..) when my poor dearly beloved was already crashed for the night. My final thought before I joined him in fitful slumber was this.. ‘I need to journal this time of our lives. I need to get my thoughts on paper’ So, here I am.. back in ‘Bill & Amy’s kitchen’ as we’re about to tear it completely apart and rebuild. Yes, you heard that.
We’re destroying our sweet little haven of a home.
……..
And rebuilding it from scratch.. well, almost.
How did this happen? What have we done??
It started almost 2 yrs ago… we were planning a new larger front entrance with a covered porch, a double wide driveway, leading to a wonderful new patio & deck behind our house, perfect for summer entertaining. Pretty, isn’t it?? (Bill painted our house from the pukey snot green to this lovely Maritime blue about 4 yrs ago)
My Sweet William started the project, building a beautiful fence along our property line to close in the new (coming in July we thought) double wide driveway, and to give us back some much needed privacy.
Then……………. A few short weeks ago, we had 3 contractors at our house all at the same time.. our electrician who is moving the hydro service before the porch addition could start, the landscaping contractor who created this beautiful design and was visiting to take her final measurements, and lastly, my cousin/boss/General Contractor.. John, who was here to help plan how we were going to build the new open gable for my new pretty front porch that I was already in love with.
As we all stood in the front yard looking at the house.. my dearly beloved asked the question that was honestly like a bomb explosion. I went through EVERY emotion in about 3 seconds – starting with deflation, grieving that this job wasn’t going to be done this summer, 2 years after we started planning it. anger, fear, sadness, hopelessness… incredulity, then HOPE..His simple question that carried so much weight: “what if we just added 6′ to the whole house?”
pause… crickets.. WHAT????
so here we are a short, yet very long month later.. plans are drawn up, we’re almost ready to go to building permit, quotes are flying in.. and we’re on a semi-schedule to start in 6-8 weeks. Not just adding 6’… but NINE feet to the front of the house. The iterations/changes/additions in the last few weeks would have any sane person’s head spinning.
From 6′ to 8’… then 9′.. staggered front wall changed to straight (thanks to a great designer who has been giving us amazing input). Adding a 2nd bathroom, gutting 80% of the whole main floor, kitchen, hvac and plumbing all rerouted.. new entrance.. moving & removing & adding windows… well, let’s just gut the main bath now too.. why not? The roller coaster ride has been exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. If you’ve ever been through a project like this.. you know exactly what I mean.
Pics up in the attic to see what we’re dealing with. found out we need to add in a beam to replace all the walls we’re taking down for ceiling load. Ok.. we can deal with that. We like the added stability.
I’ve started to take photos of the rooms we’re parting with. We’re taking out the guest room (new one will be built in the basement with guest bath) bathroom is being demo’d and redesigned with more space, and living room will be made much larger with new walls, ceiling, windows, lights.. and BUH-BYE to the horrid boob lights!! woo hoo!
We have a Tree moving service coming to remove our happy little huge Vanderwolf Pine, and quite possibly our stunning magnolia, (insert crying face here) and the electrician is coming to move our hydro service as planned, both before the end of this month. We’ve been able to procur very handy storage across the street for all our belongings when we move out, and have begun the arduous processes (is that a word?) to purge, sell and move out.
Meanwhile, I’ve been having fun planning our space, and choosing colours..
..coordinating trades and suppliers, choosing doors, windows, flooring.. My 12 yrs of experience in the home building business helping clients will be a great asset to this project. I sincerely hope.
This sweet house in Vineland is our exterior inspiration.
Sooo.. here we go. Come along for the ride if you like.. it’s going to be bumpy!
Maybe I’ll throw in some food porn on the way just to keep it interesting… 🙂
Amy