Why remodel?
We have a modest house in a newer neighborhood. We like it. It's a good location for us. We spent time and money on the yard, wired the house with ethernet while it was being framed, there's a hot tub in the deck, the dog has large run on one side, the trees are big and growing... We're just comfortable here and we don't want to move.
So, what's the remodel for? Two things: a dining room and a spare bedroom for family and friends who stay over. We also may welcome a boy into our world in the future, if it is God's path for us to adopt. We're done having any more children of our own; the world's got enough people in it already and it doesn't need us overpopulating it. If there is a child who needs us, we'll have room for him/her.
What's the plan? Rip the roof off the garage and complete the box that is our house. It's a 40x36ft ground plan, with a full first floor and half second story. The only missing piece is the 20x36 portion over the garage. That's where we'll add. The new space will be a new vaulted-ceiling bedroom/playroom for both girls to share. I am a little uncertain over how long a shared bedroom will be peaceful with the girls being 5 and 9 now. Brynn will be a teenager in four years... I can't see how she'll want to "put up" with her annoying 9 year-old sister then, but so far, we have been amazingly blessed with siblings who, love and care for each other, get along together (most of the time), and are good friends. Brynn is a wonderful big sister.
Is that all? Well, no.
- Part of the new space will be a rather small storage closet which is meant to replace the entire previously well-used attic space over the garage.
- Downstairs, the (future) former playroom becomes Michelle's long-longed-for dining room. Gone will be all the toys, games, books, couch, and my beloved computer desk. Hello BIG table-great for family gatherings and small group bible studies, meetings, etc.
- Upstairs, Brynn's current bedroom will be the computer/craft room. Michelle will have room to do her photo albums and stamping projects, and I'll have the computers desk. I'm not sure how it will work. The main Mac computer will be there, of course. But my work desktop computer is currently on the workbench in the garage. I'd like to fit that in somewhere, but not sure how. Since Michelle uses the Mac as much as I do, I can't just do a KVM. They've got to be concurrently usable. And where to put the old Mac G3 backup server? It's been in the attic whirring quietly away with it's 3x300GB drives, making sure I can recover anything... It needs a new place to live.
So, that is, in a nutshell, it. (Rather large nutshell.... perhaps a coconut shell.)
