Gone

The demolition is complete! Little A's room is now gone. Did I mention in my previous post that we are all 4 sharing one bedroom? She is still in her crib, with Little T. next to us in his bassinette (or in our bed....). So far it is working out okay. Big A worked all day on Saturday by himself trying to save siding and get a jump start on the complete tear down. He made good progress and in spite of almost electrocuting himself, managed to have a good day. Thanks to the help of Brandon & Phillip, Sunday was a great day - the three of them worked all day tearing apart sections of the room and hauling it to the dumptruck. By 5:30 the entire structure was gone and the room was sealed off. Big A saved some of the siding but was unable to salvage the tongue-and-groove planks in the ceiling. Apparently whoever did the construction glued the ceiling to the wood which created a big mess. The kids and I went to the pool and tried to stay cool - of course this project had to start in the dead of summer making life difficult for all of us!

Next: We decided to subcontract the block and foundation and we have a few questions to get answered before we are ready to go. We are hoping to have this work started Monday 7/7/08.

No Turning Back

We FINALLY got our permit from the city about 2 weeks ago. It was a long process but not too painful and now that we have it there are no more excuses - it's go time. In order to start demolition of Little A's room, we had to figure out where to put all of her stuff and where she was going to sleep. We decided to move her stuff in various locations throughout the house (mostly to a living room that is now a playroom/toyroom/place to throw miscellaneous crap) and move her crib into our room. Now the 4 of us are sleeping in what once was our bedroom. Oh well, the baby was in there anyway, and as long as he doesn't wake up Little A with his night feedings, we should be okay. So far, so good.

Once we got everyone resituated, the demolition began! Last weekend, Big A and his helper got to work and completely gutted the room. There truly is no turning back now.

This weekend the whole room will be completely demo'd. This room was not part of the original house and we think it was added on in the 70's. Big A plans to completely skin the exterior and save all of the wood siding and the tongue-and-groove planks in the ceiling. We will save the windows as well, although since we are in FL we can't reuse them in the addition since everything has to be up to code -damn hurricanes! Perhaps they can be sold on craigslist or ebay. We'll see......

Introduction

A little background: We are undertaking an addition and renovation project at our home in Dunedin FL and we are primarily doing it ourselves. This project is finally getting off the ground after being in the design stage for about six months and in the 'dream' stage for about 3 years. We are married with two kids and are slowly becoming everything we never thought we would be....but we hope this home project will ultimately provide a place of sanctuary and a unique identity in a sea of surburban sameness that defines our part of Florida.

A little about the project: Our home is a 1920's cottage, which is the type of home we desperately wanted to find when we moved back to FL after living in Seattle for 3 1/2 years. It had been renovated and was completely up to date and ready for us to move in 6 years ago when we bought the house. The renovation was nice, but we didn't do it ourselves and it isn't exactly what we wanted, so now we are ready to make some major changes, add some space, and make the house our permanent home. Phase one of the project is an addition which entails demolition of one bedroom to make way for a new two story addition to include a master suite, and two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. Phase two will be a renovation of the remaining interior space which will be reconfigured to take into account the new bedrooms. We hired an architect to help with the design because we really wanted to perserve the integrity of the original design and have an addition that fit with the rest of the house. Additionally, we were not afraid to take on some renovation to make the space 'work' in a sensible way. We are extremely happy with the design and the plans that have been prepared by our architect.

A little about us: 30 something married couple with a 3 year old daughter and 3 month old son. Big A. will perform the majority of the work himself (with a little help when necessary), while working full time, and on a tight budget. We also plan to live in the house while this is going on. We might be crazy. Hopefully we'll still be married by the time it's over. Enjoy the journey - we plan to!