Moving right along

Wow! The house changes so much almost every day that we can't keep up with the photos. Here are some from the past week.

There is a tub on our front porch.


This was the mound of trash in the front yard. There is now a dumpster.


Looking down the side of the house. The addition now has new yellow pine siding and new double hung windows to match the existing windows.


The window on the left and the white foundation are part of the old house. You can see how they incorporated the new siding with the old.


Last week they put in the french door. The back door and antique transom window are not yet installed.


This week we have a deck!


I searched the internet for a neat deck rail and we decided on this paired baluster design. I think it looks really nice with our windows and craftsman style home.


The roof is shingled!


Currently the side of the house has been prepped and primed, so we'll be seeing some exterior paint soon. The interior is moving right along, with electrical, plumbing and HVAC mostly done.

Stay tuned!

Floor Plans

Here are the final floor plans and design work I did for the existing house and the addition. They were created with a combination of SketchUp and Photoshop. We went through a gazillion different options before settling on this plan, but I think we ended up with a design that is a pretty efficient use of space and hits all the goals we had.

We ran into a few speed bumps along the road while designing, but were able to work around them. For instance, our original drawings involved building further out to the side, but after getting a survey, we discovered that not only would those plans stick out too far for the zoning laws, but also that our existing house actually encroached a few inches too far in the zoning.

The house was built before zoning regulations were in place, so it ended up being ok, but we still had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get the go ahead. We had to present before the board of adjustments and ask for a variance to "legalize" the existing structure and get approval to build the addition. We got the green light to build as long as the addition stays flush with the side of the existing house and that it doesn't stick out further than the house already was into the side-yard setback. We had to be a little more creative with how we used the space, but we're really excited about the final plan and think it will be awesome when it's all done. :)