Preparing for the Excavation

Hey, hey! So, one of the first things I did after I found out what our round about start date on this project would be, was call 811 or 1-800-362-2764. The is the Call Before You Dig number for Ohio. By law, you are required by the Ohio Utilities Protection Service (OUPS) to contact them before beginning ANY project. They will take some basic information about the project you are doing and will contact your utility providers so they can come and mark your utility lines. In my case, I only needed the gas company to come and put out their markers. The OUPS did a search and determined that I had no buried electrical lines or transformers. They also put all of that information in an email which is handy. 9 years ago, we installed a privacy fence in our backyard, there were no such follow up emails. ;) The rule for the OUPS is that you call at least 48 hours but no more than 10 days before you start your project.

  And here's what they did. Pretty simple. And they showed up a couple days after I made the phone call. You can also schedule online at oups.org. Now, since we are having our old garage/storage shed/keeper of old junk torn down, as well as all the concrete driveway and patio removed, I needed to contact our local Habitat for Humanity/Restore to donate the still usable items. They are only open a few days a week, so I was hoping they would make it over to my house before we tore everything down. They made it with a few days to spare and took everything they could get some use out of.

These guys were quick and courteous. In and out in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately,  I still have a large amount of junk things to throw away before the back hoe shows up. Wish me luck!

The Calm Before the Storm...Before Pictures

Hi there! Today I'm going to be sharing some exterior before pictures. As I mentioned before, we are adding an addition. That addition will be comprised of a two car garage. Above the garage will be a completely  finished living space that will include two bedrooms, a full bath and a play room. None of these rooms will be huge, but they will be a comfortable size and plenty big enough to do what we need them to do. This addition comes completely out of necessity. We've been living in just over 1300 sq feet. While this isn't a tiny house and a lot of people would be thrilled with the size rooms we have. But here's the rub, it's only two bedrooms. And we have boy/girl twins. And they have big things. So, it was either move to a larger home or find a solution that would allow us to stay and continue to enjoy all the things that this home already has going for it. Good location, good school district, quiet neighborhood. But the top reason boiled down to money.Yes, that's right, the almighty dollar. We purchased this home over 9 years ago and it was a foreclosure. It was VERY very inexpensive, as houses go. Actually it was cheaper than a lot of new cars. It was also a HOT hot mess. Like, crying to my fiancee, now husband, after scrubbing out gnarly kitchen cabinets that I didn't know if this house was ever going to feel like home. So fast forward nine years, and after a lot of blood, sweat, tears and cash we have built up a substantial amount of equity. And there you have it, money talks and bullsh...well you know the rest. So without further adieu, here are some before pictures of the exterior.

This is the front of the house that faces the street. I wish I had some BEFORE before pictures to show you. You couldn't see the front porch. It was covered from porch floor to ceiling in lattice and growing on that lattice were vines. Shudder. The tree limbs also completely reached the ground and bushes growing out control. There was also five randomly placed pine trees that were immediately removed.

You see that fence and grass in front of it? Yeah, that's going away. That's were the addition is going. We will enter our driveway from a different street now.You'll see where the old garage and driveway are in a minute. A good friend of mine suggested putting everything on this side of the house. I can't take credit for any of that idea. I wasn't sure if it would all fit in that location, but loved the idea because that part of the yard we don't use. Luckily we found someone to make happen for us and we couldn't be happier. And since we are removing the old garage, driveway, and patio we are gaining a ton more usable space in the backyard. 

We live on a corner lot and this is the side of the house that faces the intersecting street. To the left of the house you can see part of the old garage.

Lord have mercy. The garage. This storage heap has not had one ounce of love since we moved in 9 years ago. We've considered painting it. We considered replacing the door and fixing it up. We've even had a very nice offer from a friend a few summers ago to tear it down. And, man, that was tempting! The problem was, it was so full of junk and things we didn't need, I was kind of paralyzed as to how I would even begin to tackle a project of that magnitude. So, alas, this is how it has stayed. Ugly.Dirty.Leaning a little to left. Won't be sad to see it go. And again, this will all be yard...eventually. Hope you enjoyed the outside tour! You will be seeing it a lot in upcoming posts! 

Welcome!

Thanks for dropping by! We are about to embark on a major home renovation by adding an addition and rearranging the flow in our house. Stay tuned for lots and lots of before, during, and after of pictures. As well as some recipes and favorite things of mine. Hope you can check back often!