Barn Love

Saturday, July 19, 2014

So... We're Remodeling Our House




Wow,

There I said it, so it has to be really FINALLY happening, right? Last week was such a whirlwind of activity for our family.  All of our planning and dreams are starting to become a reality right before our eyes.

When we moved in to our current house seven years ago we knew that we would eventually want to do an addition. Four years ago when I was pregnant with our son we met with our first architect. Yes, FOUR years ago!

We have a bit of a unique family situation, so just because we wanted to remodel didn't mean that we could just go for it. After many family meetings, appointments with banks, and lots of phone calls and visits to and from our county (and A LOT of other stuff in between) we were finally able to start the project.

We went on a quick 4th of July get away with my parents, and while we were gone, my father in law started disassembling our deck.  When we got home, farmer boy quickly got to work himself. The deck was down pretty quickly, then it was time to move on to the trees.



We had two cedar trees outside of our bedroom window. We both hated to see them go, but there really was no choice.



All of this just seemed to go along with the months and years of preparation for the addition.  It didn't actually seem real to me until I saw the trucks pull up on Monday morning and the men begin working.



They removed the stumps from the cedar trees... 


and then it was game on to start digging for the foundation of our house. 


Kooper and I couldn't tear ourselves from the window all day. He was mesmerized by the equipment and I kept looking to make sure it wasn't actually a dream.  This is going to be our view from our new great room. 


This was the result at the end of day one. 


This is Kooper standing in the spot where our new fireplace will be!



After an inspection by the county, and checking and re-checking to make sure that everything was even, the brick layers began their work. These guys worked for the rest of the week and on Saturday. I'll never look at a block building the same way again. What an art, and truly a tedious job for sure.



So at the end of the first week of construction these are our results:



This is the side of our house where the new living room will be. Think lots of glass and open space. 



This is the front of our garage and where our loft space will be. 



Oh, and the random door in the garage? Let's just say someone messed up and forgot to make space for it to go. We added a visual so there wouldn't be confusion when they actually do cut it!

We couldn't be happier with the results of week one.  

3 comments:

  1. Yay!!! Is there any way to get the trees turned into planks so that you could build something for your new house with the cedar wood?

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    Replies
    1. Not sure about planks but one of our friends might do a wood burning thing for us.

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  2. Nice one! Those refurbishings should be great for the long haul. They can prepare you well enough for whatever strains that the climate may entail. I hope everything has been going well in terms of the progress. All the best!

    Tyrone Parker @ Leids Carpentry

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