Let the Blogging Begin

Well, I guess I'll cave in and join the world of bloggers! The primary purpose will be to document our family's remodeling survivor game. Hence the name of the blog...


HISTORY
Our house is a 24x44 modular from the 1970s. When we bought it in 1991, we moved in without changing a thing. What a perfect little starter home!










Before long we added a garage and changed the exterior color from yellow to gray. In 2000 we added a vinyl deck with a gable roof along the front. Over the years we made a few interior cosmetic improvements, too, especially with paint.

We still love our location, but 16+ years and 3 children later the house is getting shabby and just a little cramped. We've been talking about remodeling for probably 10 years, but we've not been in a hurry. For various reasons.

1. as long as we're only dreaming it doesn't cost anything
2. the longer we wait the more time we have to decide what we want
3. the older the children are the less destructive [??] -at least we won't have spilled sippy cups on the new carpet
4. it's not hard to procrastinate putting ourselves in a stressful situation like remodeling
5. housekeeping is not a favorite chore so why have more house to keep clean?!

Often other people gave the impression they are more dissatisfied for us than we are ourselves. In recent years the worn, stained floor coverings & chipping bathtub have been getting to me but it was pointless to replace them when we'd soon be enlarging rooms.

THE PLANNING BEGINS

Early this year I decided I can't stand it anymore -it's time to take the plunge. We also discovered now seems to be a good time to build with the economy & slumping construction trade bringing prices down. To make a long story short- we've looked into tearing down our house and starting over with a new modular, turning our ranch into a Cape Cod, and many ranch floor plans until we finally came up with an efficient layout that fits our lifestyle.

Unless plans change again... we'll add 15' to the south end (toward the driveway/garage) and a piece on the back (east side). We will be enlarging the Living Room, turning the kitchen into a dining room, moving the kitchen into the addition which has a much nicer view, moving the laundry and office up from the basement (eliminates a lot of steps!) and adding a Master Bed & Bath along with a walk-in closet. The bedrooms will remain intact structurally but we'll replace the windows, trim, and floorcoverings; the bathroom will get a face lift as well as removal of the closet to make room for a double sink. Looks like we'll be adding at least 1100 sq. ft. to our 1056 sq ft. home. As a number of people have so wittily stated "You're adding a house onto your piece!"

We're planning to live here through the process... load-bearing wall & roof removal and all! We expect to hang out in the pop-up camper and basement during the worst of it.

For the last couple of weeks my scrapbook table has been converted into a design center. At 1 point I had 21 library books on Kitchen and Bath designs spread about. Today it's numerous cabinet manufacturer's catalogs, paint samples, elevation drawings, a folder of ideas clipped or copied from books & magazines and a fresh stack of library books on bedroom and office design ideas. An interesting & practical book I'm reading is called "Remodel This! A Woman's Guide to Planning & Surviving the Madness of Home Renovation". On Saturday (May 31) we took another step in the planning process- we went to Lowes & Home Depot to price a kitchen and some other items. Reassuringly enough, we didn't get sticker shock on the kitchen.

I'm not housecleaning or having a garden this year. While we have an excavator here, we'll have them dig around the rest of the house to correct the drainage & waterproofing of the basement. So all the perrenials & shrubs I want to keep will have to be dug up and probably put in the garden for safekeeping.