its been almost one year since my last blog post! i am feeling guilty and unorganized w/my photo memories! its time to start posting again and providing more photo journal-ing ... then i will print, print, and keep for my little ones.
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this has been a very busy 7 months! after many months in 2013 of planning, prepping, planning, and hoping for a BIG CHANGE: we signed the papers to start the add-on and remodel of our little home. in december 2012 (days before christmas), we signed the final papers for the project to begin. it was the biggest and best gift for our family. we have been wanting more space for our family of 5. we had looked for new living space and even new neighborhoods. however, it always came back to our space on daisy court. we love our neighborhood, proximity to the river, neighbors, ward, and the open concept of our yard. it's hard to find or beat this space anywhere in the tri-cities. our super-fantastic-talented-generous-neighbor, KAY SPARKS, assisted us through the entire process. she is both an architect + contractor. she knew who to contact and how to get the job done. she worked through many house plans with us. we started with a 2-level design, but kept making changes, refining each inch of our little add-on space. we ended up with a 1-level design and kitchen remodel. we added over 900 square feet onto our home, equaling about 2600 square feet. drawings were presented to the home owner's design committee and they eventually approved them. financing approval was obtained and we were finally ready to start in JANUARY 2013. !!!! so exciting !!!!
we hired GALE REW to build our home and paul was our contractor. he was phenomenal to work with -- he worked through some problems and made things come together beautifully. we were blessed with expertise and sense of humor! paul was kind enough to allow me to make some last-minute changes and decisions as well. kay and paul have worked together on other projects...so together, they made sure we were well taken care of.
luckily we had a mild winter for this building project. mom and dad were here over christmas (we were in seaside, or). when we returned home, dad and andre began disassembling the deck. on my thursday/work day, they packed up all of our attic storage, deck furniture, and yard belongings and filled up a storage unit that was nearby. andre wanted to save some of the decking materials and we will be using them for a new deck in the near future. the addition to our home took over all of our wrap-around deck space, and then some. we maximized our yard space with house. luckily, we live next to a common area open space, which makes our yard look considerably larger. looking at these pictures gives me even more appreciation for what we have accomplished!
