In the midst of a global pandemic, we finally pulled the trigger on our home remodel. This remodel has been years in the making. We first met with an architect friend of ours, Kelly McShane, back in 2016. We had her family over for dinner, and she started throwing out ideas/ways we could remodel our home. That started us down a rabbit hole - searching for the original plans for our home and asking Kelly to do a mock up drawing. When Kelly admitted that she had too much on her plate to continue working with us, we hired another architect and met with him for the first time on 10/19/2016. Well, fast forward almost four years, and we are finally remodeling! We looked at many, many houses over the last three years to see if moving would be better, but we never fell in love with anything in our price range. Heck, we even looked at homes above our price range and never fell in love. After years of looking, we felt more convicted that we want to stay in our current home - we love the cul de sac, the privacy, our greenbelt in the backyard, the access to the golf course, most of our neighbors (haha), and the community. The process has been slow and painful, but now that we are here, we are super excited that there is no turning back.
Our remodel plans were completed by our architect last November, but he is slow as molasses and did not submit them for permitting until February. In the meantime, Tommy and I were working through the plans/budget with a contractor and looking for a rental house. Our original plan was to begin the remodel on 3/1/2020. When the permit took longer than we expected (not really the permit but the architect submitting for the permit), we pushed the start date back to 4/1. Well guess what? The world screeched to a halt in early March, and by 3/25 we were in a Stay at Home order. Everything was put on hold and Tommy and I questioned whether we should proceed. After months of thinking/praying about it, we pulled the trigger and signed our lives (and bank account) away in early July.
On 7/21, the "spiffy biffy" arrived and our kids' playground was dismantled. On 7/25, the excavator arrived and started pulling up the concrete on our back patio. It was exciting to watch. Brayden even got to drive the excavator! Of course, our next door neighbors Lillian and Rodney came over to complain that their house was shaking from the excavator - I am quite certain this is not the last we will hear from them since they are always difficult. Later that day, our contractor accidentally hit our gas line with a shovel, and you could hear and smell the gas leak all around the house. Lillian was the first on site to complain - I think I saw more of her that day than I have seen her in all 11 years we've lived in our house! Puget Sound Energy showed up quickly to cap our gas line and three fire trucks with 9-10 firemen showed up to inspect the house before we could re-enter. It was a very chaotic first day of construction.
We moved into a rental house on 7/27. Finding a rental was not an easy process, but we lucked out when we were able to snag a rental one street over from our home. The rental is very dated and smells (in my opinion), but it will be just fine for a short period of time!
Today is 8/23. There has been a ton of progress on the house in the first month - the backyard has been excavated, foundation poured, framing done for the new bedroom and extended kitchen, the downstairs has been gutted, the backyard has been backfilled and the retaining wall has been rebuilt. Tommy and I have a list of due dates for all of our selections, and it is a part-time job keeping up with that schedule. I am sooooo grateful that Tommy has been working from home during this time because it is easy for us to run out to look at doors, plumbing fixtures, fireplaces, etc. I have thought many times that it would be even more stressful if we were trying to make these selections while he was working at the office.
Tommy has also done most of the heavy lifting project managing the remodel. He is spending hours sorting through selection option, pricing them out, sending emails, making appointments, etc. He is also looking at Pinterest daily, which makes me laugh. I would never be able to do this remodel without his enthusiasm.
I'll try to post pictures of the progress over the next several months. We are hoping to move back in next spring... March may be optimistic but maybe by May? In the meantime, I will keep my eye on the prize.
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