Before Pictures

When Robby first found this property on-line he called me over the computer and quickly said, "don't look at the house, just look at the property." So that is what I did.  However, at the same time, I knew we'd be working with some of what was there.   I can't start blogging about the major changes and new building of the house before sharing all of the pictures of the house as it is today.  So here it is...including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

~Exterior~

Current front door and front of the house. 

Current carport that will become our new front of the house...we are turning the orientation of the house because of how it sits on the lot.

Back of the house and back porch that we will be expanding and screening part of. 

~Interior~

Original masonry fireplace we are going to paint and keep and probably add a new mantle on.

Current kitchen - this was updated in the 90's.  We are going to keep the kitchen in the same general place, but it will be expanded and everything you see here will be new.  These are solid wood cabinets so we are going to paint and re-use some in the new laundry room and some in the garage for storage.

Current dining room that will be demoed and will become part of the new living room. I plan to re-use the light fixture somewhere though.

Current living room that will become our new dining room. You can also see the current front door in this picture.  That will be drywalled over and will no longer be there. The short windows will also be replaced with larger ones.

Current office that will become part of the new living room.  Robby took apart these built-ins and put all the pieces in the basement with the hopes of re-building them somewhere else in the finished house. Maybe in the playroom.

The kids love these saloon doors from the dining room to the kitchen. Ha! Sad to tell them we won't be using these in the new house!

Hallway with current bedrooms...two of which will combined and remodeled to be the playroom and one that will be expanded and become the guest suite.

Current guest bedroom.  We are going to reuse some of this original tongue and groove paneling in another part of the new house. 

The kids have names for the 3 current bathrooms and it's so funny for me to hear them talking about them.  We have the "blue bathroom" (which will no longer be a bathroom after the remodel)...

the "butterfly bathroom" which has some really interesting light fixtures (this bathroom will become the half-bath to serve the back part of the house and the playroom)...

And the "dragon bathroom" because of the dragon tiles (not pictured here).  This bathroom will be remodeled and become the guest bedroom bath.

~The Lot~

And now, for the main reason we bought this house - the lot.  It's seconds away from major intersections, but feels hours away.  Our lot is a little over an acre and 1/2 and has a small creek running through it.  You can see the current foot bridge in the picture below.

When we are here and in the yard it is so incredibly peaceful.  We hear nothing but birds chirping, the trickling of water from the creek, and see all of the beautiful large trees that surround us.  I'm so excited to have a cleared area across the creek for the kids' play area.  We're also going to clean out a lot of the underbrush to really be able to see the trees have a more open feeling.

Robby and I disagree a little about some of the trees because while I do love them, I do not want to feel like I'm living in a forest.  I think we've reached a good compromise though.

This is the current driveway from the street looking down at the house.  What house you say?  Exactly my point.  You can't even see what is down there so we will be clearing and opening up the front of the house.  Plus, some of the trees near the current house will have to be removed because of grading for the new addition.  Also, the driveway location will have to change so those trees will be cleared out too, opening up the front of the house from the road.  However, we will still have the privacy and mature trees we love about this lot.

~What we are doing to the house~ 

It's aways been my dream to build a house and design everything just the way I want it.  This project is coming just about as close to that dream as I will ever get.  Working with the architect we had limitations because of the existing house, but the new part got to be totally the way we wanted it.  Here are just a few things we will be doing/changing/adding.

• All of the current ceiling heights will be raised two feet. 
• Hardwood floors will be sanded and and re-stained to match the new hardwood floors that will be added. 
• Combining two current bedrooms, one bathroom and hallway to become an over sized playroom on the main floor (off the kitchen area). 
• Expanding/combining current guest bedroom and hallway to become guest suite on the main floor. 
• Redoing all the plumbing and electrical for the house. 
• Changing the current pitch of the roof to match the roof line of the new addition. 
• Reconfiguring and expanding the kitchen. 
• Building a two story addition that will include 3-car garage, mudroom, walk-in pantry, command center, 1/2 bath, living room and office on the main floor and master bedroom/bath, 3 kids bedrooms/baths, laundry room and craft room upstairs.  
• The outside will have a wrap-around porch that connects with the current porch and we will be screening part of the existing porch. 

To say this is a big project would be an understatement.  We are expecting it to take about 5 months to complete as soon as things really get going (our goal is to start by Oct. 1!).  The good news is that a huge part of the puzzle finally fell into place last week when we closed on our construction loan.  Now we are just awaiting the final permits and we will be ready to begin!