Wall of awesomeness

You may or may not know that every summer I take a trip with "the boys" to a different baseball stadium around the country (well mostly within driving range). It is an idea I had way way back in the 90's and luckily we've been able to arrange a trip every year. One year we only had three go, but every other year we've packed the van to the gills and had some great times. This is the shrine to those trips.



For the record: Yankee Stadium (NYC) , Fenway (Boston), Wrigley and Comiskey (Chicago), County Stadium and Miller Park (Milwaukee), Old Busch and New Busch (St. Louis), Kaufman twice (Kansas City), Turner (Atlanta), Shea (NYC), PNC (Pittsburgh), Comerica (Detroit), Jacobs (Cleveland), and RFK (Washington D.C.).

This is what that wall looks like now...



The reason for this is this wall is going to be cut in half. The other side of this wall is our family room. We're going to open up the floor plan and I think it's going to be pretty cool. But have no fear, the pics will be back on a wall somewhere in the house once the project is complete.

I've been accused of being a pack rat

A charge I vehemently deny. But for the record we did use Pack Rat as our "pod" of choice.

See?



Before...



After...



And that's just furniture. There was no way in the world we could get everything else in there, so we have a separate storage facility keeping more of our (my) crap.

Kitchen

One of the biggest trouble spots for our house is the kitchen. The space isn't the biggest problem...it's what's in it. The cabinets are probably older than I am (yeah, they're OLD), the floor needed to be replaced 10 years ago, and while the appliances work, they're just in need of replacing (why not?).

The following is a pic of what the kitchen looked like before we moved out (don't be scared to look real quick)...



This is what happens when a bored man gets his mitts on the "paint" program...



As you can see, I had a little fun. But to clear things up...the big X on the right side means the wall that is there will no longer be. It's being knocked completely out to expand the kitchen area. All the appliances will be replaced with "new" ones. Cabinets will also be replaced. And yes the floor will go "bye bye". And I had a little fun with the spray paint function as well. Hope you like!

Random Pics

The following parts of the house will not have anything done to them...except get painted. Just thought you'd enjoy a tour of the outside...

The left side/garage

Right side of the house (left: Alexander's room, right: master)

Back entrance to the garage (exciting isn't it?)

Back bay window in kitchen

Back door (also gets replaced) and deck

Front entry

As promised, here are some current pics of the house. Not everything is going to get major work done. Maybe some painting here and some repairing there. I will try to explain as I go along.

Here goes...



Above is the front door (I'll get a better pic so you can see how awful it really is), the front picture window, and part of the ugly walkway that graces the front of our house. The door, obviously, is going to be replaced. The walkway is going to be torn up and replaced with something a little more boring, but a LOT better aesthetically. And the picture window is going to be removed because that's where the steps up to the second level are going to go. In its place we're going to try to plant a tree (see, we're helping to Heal the World! Michael Jackson would be proud!) so there isn't an ugly open spot.

Scope

So you may be asking "just what exactly are they going to do?" Well, I'll go into more details as we go along. But, for right now a brief synopsis.

• Take the roof completely off.
• Add a full second story complete with 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms.
• Completely overhaul the existing kitchen with brand new cabinets, appliances, flooring, paint, light fixtures, you name it. There will only be segments of a few walls from the original kitchen once we're done.
  
• Re-finish all hardwood floors (family room, foyer, and 2 back rooms on first floor)
• New front and back entry doors
• New front sidewalk so we can actually use our front door!
  
• Turn the existing master bedroom into an office
• Turn Alexander's room into a play room (to get ALL of the toys out of the family room!!)
• Turn existing office into a foyer
• Take existing stairs to basement and move them to the foyer where the stairs to the second story are.
• Cut existing walls separating the office and kitchen from the family room in half so there is an open floor plan on main floor.
  
• Paint the red bricks to match the second story siding. No more red bricks!!
  
• I think that's it...for now.
  

Just a few little things. Shouldn't take more than a couple weeks, right? Well, hopefully we're back in before Christmas. Fingers are crossed.

Back later with pictures.

Welcome!

Over the next six months (give or take a month), we're going to embark upon a project that will: drive us nuts, raise our stress level, cram us into two rooms, shorten our fuses, and no doubt cause a fight or twenty. BUT...in the end, we'll have a house that is approximately double the original and give us the space we need to ultimately add to our family.

In that same span, I'm going to try to post as many pics as possible. Hopefully we'll get some video posted as well. Either way, a lot of before and after pics to compare the progress and amaze at the same time.

Please feel free to ask questions. I will visit daily to try and post something new either in the form of pictures or a general state-of-mind update.

So, for starters, this is what our house currently looks like...well, minus Alexander's toys in the driveway.



Coming soon: overall scope of work, plenty of pictures, and other random things. In the meantime, bookmark the site and check back as often as you like.