Home Rennovations

When we bought this house, it was hard to know where to begin with the home renovations.

Plumbing wormed its way to the top of the list when we realized that was a pre-requisite to moving in. But, once the plumbing was finished, followed by a long list of odds and ends, we had to settle on which large project to focus on next.

The sprinkler system and landscaping will have to wait until spring, and the new roof and new windows will have to wait until we officially sell our other house and get the equity. Other things, like the patio with a hot tub in the backyard off the family room (aka party room), and putting in our dream kitchen are even further down the list (and maybe on a list labeled "fantasy" or "for when we get insane amounts of unforeseen income").

Brian convinced me that the most worthwhile large scale project at present was enlarging two of the four downstairs windows to make two more bedrooms. Have you ever done this before? It is an amazing process! Holy cow! First, we dug two enormous holes outside of the existing windows (then, while we waited for the bids to come in on having the concrete cut, all of the rain caused the holes to partially collapse and Brian had to re-dig them).

Today, the concrete cutting company came and spent the entire day using their enormous saw to cut right through our foundation. The result is two enormous holes more then 4 times as large as the original windows. I am stoked! I can't believe the difference all of the natural light has already made in the basement. Now, Brian is working on putting the windows into the holes. And, I hope that in the very near future he will decide that putting a few of our walls and ceilings back together is the next most important project. I think he likes the demolition the best ;-).