Gearing Up

I have been hesitant to write anything on here (or facebook) about the house project that we are about to get into. The last time I wrote about one I ended up having to retract - - remember this post? (ha! no turning back!) Our contractor ended up bailing on us and as the economy started to get worse and worse, we thought that maybe there was a reason we weren't supposed to get into it at that time. Now 3 years later, I am really happy that we ended up not going through with the original project! We have had a lot more time to think about what we really want to do and save money so that we don't have to finance much of it.

Our plans have drastically changed from last time - I think what we are going to do will really maximize our living space without adding on much square footage and will retain the character of our charming 1930s home.

Starting in early April, we will be converting our basement into a family room, guest bedroom & bathroom. This is going to be a pretty complicated project since we will have to get our concrete floors broken up in order to dig down a couple of feet. There will also be a lot of work done around getting the basement water-proofed and up to code (i.e. egress window for guest bedroom). Once the major work is done, Jon will take over to do the finishing work. We will get the main room and bedroom complete but just frame out the bathroom for now (and get the plumbing run) but won't finish it at this point as we'll have to focus on what will start happening upstairs (more on that later)! I am super excited about having a guest bedroom! All of my family, some of Jon's family and many of our close friends are from out of state and we have always wanted a place to accomodate them when they visit! Currently, when we have visitors, we move Sophia out of her bed and into Anthony's room and all share the same bathroom -- not ideal.

My goal is to create a cozy b&b feel in the guest bedroom and I will center the design around this great pillow that I bought:

So, onto the upstairs! In May, we are hiring a [reliable, dependable - we hope!] contractor to add on a little bit upstairs. If you take a quick look at the first pic in this old post it will be easier to explain. The balcony will be closed in, as will the areas on either side of the addition on the first level. Upstairs, it will be a new bedroom for Anthony and a bathroom for the kids. Anthony's old bedroom will become my work-from-home office (yay!) and we will close the current full bath off from the hallway and open it up through our room (double yay!) The downstairs won't change too much except that the steps going down to the basement will be closed in and there will be a little more room in the kitchen to add a big closet to put the washer/dryer in. Again, Jon will take over all of the inside renovations - I am so thankful to have a husband that is so skilled in this area - the best part is his attention to detail - I love that we don't have unfinished projects all over the house - all trim work etc. gets done before he moves on!

I'm going to try to document the process on here with videos/pics, so stay tuned!