Why We Got To This Point

We live in a ranch style house that was owned by my wife (DJ) parents. A few years ago they were getting to the point where keeping up the house and yard were getting too much and they sold it to us.

It's a very nice house with the backyard sitting on the edge of a Nature Preserve.

But here is the problem. It has never felt like DJ's house. It feels like her parents house.

So - what do to? We could always look for another house but that involves moving and geez, we're on a nature preserve with deer, raccoon, hawks, birds galore and all sorts of woods creatures. We are in a zone that feels like the back woods on one side of the house and suburban neibhrhood on the other side.

After talking about it we decided to do some remodeling and this is where the blog comes in.

We're not huge do it yourselfers. We depend on new knowledge to get us though things, nothing passed down from childhood, every step is another step into the swampland of new ideas and never remodeled before adventures.

Therefore, the major things are being contracted out, but what you will see is what has to be done by us is still substantial.

Here is the plan as I know it today

Stage 1.
Living room - new window coverings for front window - prelim estimate $1800
Kitchen - more light - 14inch SolaTube lighting - prelim estimate $770
Kitchen - new hardwood floor - prelim estimate $3800 but does not include inlay in front doorway add $1000?
Kitchen - new Vendura counters - prelim estimate $2200 - still working on colors
Deck - increase size of deck by 5 feet to make it usable - prelim estimate unknown

Stage 2
Back rooms - Increase the size of the back windows that look into the woods - French door? Just larger windows? Still investigating - prelim estimate $ 3 - $8000.
Bathroom - new counters and possible Solatube lighting - prelim estimate unknown

Stage 3
Make basement into usable living space - prelim estimate $5000???
Increase size of dining room by removing the middle part of the only load baring wall in the house - prelim estimate unknown.

That’s all at the moment - no big time frame. We're obtaining a Line of Credit soon.

Stay tuned. You can subscribe to this blog with the RSS feed or just check back from time to time. We won't be on a daily update or not even weekly but we will keep you abreast of our ups and downs.

DJ & Grinder