Let's Do This

Nic and I recently decided that rather than buy or build a home that would better fit our family {sorry, but 1,008 square feet just isn't cutting it}, we're going to renovate the heck out of our current home.

And since I know you want to be involved in every little detail, I decided to start a blog about our journey so that our family blog doesn't become overloaded with paint samples and drywall dust.

Here's the plan.

This is what we are starting with:

It's your standard 7-ft-ceiling, 80's cookie-cutter home.  It's the perfect little house for a young couple, which is exactly what we were when we bought it.  We've been here for 7 years, and love our little salt box starter home.

Now that we have a couple kids, we're feeling like we need a playroom/office area, and a larger family room with plenty of space to play and relax.  So this is Phase One of our plan:

So some pretty big changes.  We're going to add on a 20x20 family room, with a mudroom entry from the garage.  We'll also move some walls around to create a larger entryway, and add some walls to create a playroom/office at the front of the house.

Currently, our washer and dryer are right in the kitchen {which I actually love}, so we're going to create a bar overtop of the washer and dryer, and knock down the wall between the entryway and kitchen, which will open things up considerably.

We're planning to move the fireplace to the new family room, and then make the kitchen a little bigger by knocking down that wall.  We'll add a pantry {that little triangle by the table}, and close off the garage entry in the kitchen.  The new mudroom will be the new garage entry.

The crazy part?  We're doing about 90% of this ourselves.  We have a sweet little amish guy coming to pour the foundation, frame, roof, and do the exterior work on the new room.  We'll do the drywall and finish work, as well as the electricity, flooring, and the fireplace construction.  We're also doing all of the other changes in the existing home ourselves.

Life's about to get crazy.

So hopefully I'll be able to chronicle this process, and hopefully you'll read along!