House addition!

Some days I still can't believe this really happened!!  For years we have said that we would "one day" like to knock out the back wall to our house and build on.  Early in the year we looked at the option to buy a lot up the street and sell our house.  We looked into it a bit and just couldn't get a good feeling about it.  Then somehow we got to a point where this idea entered back into the picture.  We called Doug Wyatt and asked him to come see if it was even possible and give us a bid.  He came and said it would be a pretty straight forward addition and gave us an idea of what it would cost.  Then came the hard part...should we really do this??? Is it the right time??? Is is a good decision financially???  We had a lot to talk and pray about.  We didn't take this lightly.  We fasted together as a family and Chris and I took this decision to the temple several times.  After a month or so of pondering we decided we felt good about it and we would go ahead with it.  It was hard to believe we were really going to do it!

The addition plans came from my drawings on graph paper which then got transfered to the gym floor at the church!  We wanted to see it drawn out in real life size! Haha!! Doug was good to take my drawings and bring them to life!!  It was an exciting time, but also a very stressful time!  It took much longer than expected.  They started work the middle of July and we got our kitchen cabinets installed the middle of November.  It was a grueling 4 months!! But...we are so so happy with the results!  It gives us so much more space and we are loving it!!

We decided to do a lot of the work ourselves to save money.  Looking back, I cannot believe what we accomplished together.  Chris and I have always loved to do projects together, but this was intense!  There was a project to do every second he was off work...for months!!  I predict that it will take us until next July to be completely finished.  These are the things we did for our home together...

-installed all of the finish trim

-calked, puttied and painted all of that finish trim

-installed all 1000 square feet of laminate flooring!

-built and painted a window seat

-made cushions and pillows for the window seat

- built and painted a built in bookshelf

-installed a tile back splash

-re-painted some of our old kitchen cabinets to hang in the pantry room

-built shelves, painted and stained the counter top for the pantry room

-built a new kitchen table

-re-painted 5 of our kitchen chairs

- painted and re-painted the whole upstairs

- built and painted a side table

- painted and re-upholstered 2 chairs from the DI

Wow!  No wonder we are tired!!  

We love our new addition and know it will be a blessing for our family for years to come.  As we have built shelves and such, we have joked that they will need to be strong enough for those cute little grandchildren to climb on!  We are ready!!