Two Weeks In...

...demo is almost done, and hopefully the foundation work can start soon.

Day 0:

Day 3:

And then it snowed:

Day 8:

Demo included salvaging half of the original brick to use on the addition to blend it with new brick. This is only part of the salvaged brick.

We're hoping for some dry weather so we can pick up the pace!

Our 2016 Addition...

...comes in the form of additional square footage!

After months of planning, all the details and paperwork, including a variance with the county, are in place for us to start our addition. 

Here's the current floor plan:

Here's the same view with the addition off the kitchen:

And the new view with more detail:

From the outside, here's the side views:

It's a little tough to tell from the side views where the addition is if you're not familiar with the house, but the walls with arched windows will be new.

Fireplace

We almost seem to be outgrowing our house, or at least the first floor, with all the baby toys, books, a Pack'n'Play, Exersaucer, Moses basket, Mamaroo, etc., etc. filling every corner and walkway. Our basement is finished so we knew it would be a great additional space for evening lounging once we got it set up, except for the steady 55-degree temperature down there. Alas, a gas fireplace seemed like the best solution for the space to warm it up!

Like most things around here, we had to wait a while for the installation, but it's finally done! Here's a few shots that I took along the way.

We still have some work to do for furniture and decor, but it's nice and cozy down there now!

Exterior Painting - finished up!

After weeks and weeks of the painters working on our house, they've finally finished enough for me to get some pictures of the house looking like a finished product!

We've come a long way since this spring. Here's one more before and after:

Exterior House Painting

We've been waiting since April to get our house painted before this winter and it's finally happening!

Here's how the house looked this summer before we did some third-trimester yard work:

Here it is after the landscaping this summer (details here):

I'm so glad those big bushes are gone from around the porch!

Here it is this October before the painters started:

And here we are halfway through the painting (don't the front windows pop so much more?):

Things should wrap up in another week or so. We're hoping the final "After" picture doesn't have snow on the ground! I can't wait to see the (Cardinal) red front door and black shutters! Then it's time for Christmas decorations...

Ready for Baby!

The classes are done, and the nursery's all set up (even though she'll probably do little more than nap in there for a while), so now we're just waiting for her arrival!

 

 

 

One day in the front yard!

It's amazing what a difference a day can make! We spent the majority of the day in the front yard taking out overgrown bushes around the front porch and filling the space with 21 boxwoods, bringing the front yard total to 33 (!), three hydrangeas, and several mums for some seasonal color.

Here's how the house looked last fall. We hadn't done much work outside at this point:

Here's how it looked early this morning:

Action shot...a few of the big bushes gone already!

And here's how it looks at the end of the day!

When we moved in, the wall along the garage (on the left) had hostas running along it that died back each fall. We moved those to a bed around the tree on the left side of the photo above and filled the space along the garage with three white hydrangeas, two vibernums, and 11 boxwoods. This project was done a few weeks ago.

Coming up in September: we're having the outside of the house painted. The trim will become a creamy white, the shutters black, and the front door Cardinal (Go tree!).