How to Survive and Live to Tell About Your Home Addition, Part 2

Chaos, that’s what reigned at our house, and I’m a person that is greatly influenced by my surroundings.  I was trying to keep it together, but it continued to slip further and further into disorder.  Still, the work pressed on, the electrical and plumbing finished as much as they could, then insulation. I was overwhelmed, but we couldn’t go back, we were too far into this project! 

More work to be finished, the drywall, the mudding and taping, the huge mess of sanding the mudding.  We had fine dust covering every surface of our house and there was no getting rid of it! It was everywhere.  As soon as I could I began painting.  I had decided in the beginning that, because of our tight budget and I really wanted all new flooring throughout the main floor and in the basement, I would do all of the painting.  I knew this was a big job, I just didn’t know HOW big. 

I had been painting most of the summer anyway, because I was re-staining our kitchen cabinets to reuse so that we could save money.  I also had several pieces of furniture that needed updating and beautifying, so I was already somewhat burned out on the whole painting projects.    So, at the end of September, I began painting the primer on the walls, but I soon realized that painting primer takes a lot longer to paint than just regular paint! I painted and painted and painted! Oh the primer! It seemed to never end, the need for primer.  I had painted very few rooms from bare drywall and because they were relatively small, I hadn’t realized how much a bare drywall will suck up the primer and how much needed to be painted on the walls.  But I eventually got the walls painted in the kitchen…

How to Survive ….and Live to Tell About Your Home Addition, Part 1

Our 2-Story Center Hall Colonial Home - B.C. (Before Construction)

Two years ago, our home was feeling increasingly small, but because of the plummeting prices of homes we weren’t going to sell. Our home was nice.  We had only built about 10 years before and had tried to keep it in good shape.  sure we had some repairs to do and maybe some new flooring would be great, but all-in-all, our home was fine except for the size.  And with 4 kids, when it's feeling small, you REALLY feel it.  So, I had the brilliant idea that we should just add on to the one we had.  Oh, I had heard that adding on to your home was hard, but those were people who hadn’t built a house before.  And we had!  I was so much more prepared than them! (ha ha)  

B.C. Family Room

So, June 24^th, 2009, the fun began.   As our days were filled with the busyness and excitement of an excavator coming out to dig out the foundation, I could visualize the new rooms and their potential.  Then, we began the removal of the old siding and prepped for framers to begin as soon as the basement cement was poured.  It was all very exhilarating.  A little tiring maybe, but it would all be worth it!  My husband’s job began to be more demanding than earlier and he was working long days and a few long nights, but this was just temporary, and besides, I could certainly handle the house on my own!

B.C. Kitchen

Then, the framers began showing up at 6:30 blasting their rock music to begin their day.  But the walls went up fast and it was still exciting to see so much progress every day.  We joked about feeling like we were camping because the entire backside of our house was open to the elements.  Even finding out we had to install a new beam that wasn’t planned for didn’t break my stride, there are always unexpected surprises!

B.C. Living Room

As soon as the sheathing was up a windstorm came on suddenly, we hopped into action and nailed plywood to the open window areas. We were on top of it. My husband’s job continued to be demanding and would often consume his nights as well as his days. We began to wonder what we had done, but life had thrown us curveballs before, we were certainly tougher than that! We soon began the work that would take longer, but I knew what I was in for because we had built before so, no problem.  Ripping out the kitchen cabinets started my realization that I had bitten off more than I could chew. The mess soon overtook the entire home when the electrical work and plumbing began.  We were beginning to get tired of the constant chaos, but we still had hope...