What were we thinking?

Being the smart and intelligent people that Keith and I are, we decided two weeks after Christmas to begin construction on a home remodel project. Not only did we start this project 5 weeks before this baby is due to arrive BUT also just a few weeks before the busiest time of Keith's job (also evidence that Keith and I are not the sharpest tools in the shed as this will be the second baby born into our family in the middle of tax season)! What can I say, we like to live on the wild side!

I digress...this all started about a year ago when Keith and I were trying to decide how long we wanted to stay in our current home. We never really reached a decision but all we knew is that we were soon to outgrow our home and didn't want to be forced to move before we were ready, both financially and emotionally. Then the market took a nose dive and we knew we couldn't move even if we wanted to so we started looking around at what we could do to our current home to gain some extra space. Keith's first thought was to add on to the back but that can get kind of pricey and we just weren't sure we wanted to spend a fortune when we probably won't stay in this house forever SO (pat myself on the back) I came up with an alternative solution. We decided to take our 2-story front room and basically slice it in half horizontally. Its called a "floor over" in the building world which basically means that instead of stepping through our front door and seeing a 2-story great room, you now will see a regular 8 ft. ceiling room and upstairs you will have a nice bonus room/extra bedroom. Not only will this little remodel push us over the 2000 sq. ft. threshold but it will also let us be able to list our house as a 4 bedroom when we go to resale as opposed to a 3 bedroom. We feel pretty blessed to be able to do this remodel and ironically enough, its partially thanks to our plummeting economy and even greater plummeting interest rates but ultimately the thanks goes to God! Now...our prayer is that this project will be completed before baby boy decides to arrive! We have complete faith in our contractor but just in case I don't think I'll hold my breath. We've taken some pictures along the way and I am sure there will be more to come. You can click HERE to see the progress thus far! Also if anyone needs a good contractor we have an EXCELLENT one to recommend! Although I feel blessed and am excited about this remodel, it has definitely not come without any inconveniences. Poor Merrin has been displaced from her "world" as she knows it and I honestly don't know when things will resume back to normal, especially with a baby brother on the way. All I can do is pray for her and hope that she will be as resilient as people say kids can be. I'm sure I'll keep you all updated so this is To Be Continued...