Exterior

This is a collage of the plans for the exterior. Some of the products have been decided on, but we don't know for sure where we are buying them from, so there won't be a link to the exact product. Once they are bought and installed, I'll link them.

 1. 30x60' White Vinyl Double Hung Windows 2. Black Raised Panel Shutters 3. Nickel Door Knocker 4. Outdoor Light 5. White Vinyl Siding 6. Retractable Screen Storm Door in Black 7. Door Color: Tuscon Teal 8. House Numbers 9. Entry Door

 Tamko Heritage Series

As you can see, Home Depot and Lowes are definitely playing major roles in this project, especially because there's a Home Depot 3 miles from the build site. 

Kitchen plans

Once again, we've changed up the layout for the kitchen. After thinking about it for the last month, I finally realized that NOT having a window over the sink was going to royally bother me. So, we're still keeping the L-shape, we're just changing up the layout some. By doing this, we've also removed the pantry. We're substituting a pantry cabinet.

We think this layout is going to be the best possible layout for us. Gotta love making changes while things are still in the planning stage. Next week, it won't be so easy. We're starting construction on the interior walls next week! Things are going to start to really move now. We're on track to a move-in date of June 1!

Finalized plans

Back in July, I had posted the rendering of the 'possible' final plans for the house. As with anything in a renovation, things change. Most of the house has remained the same, however the Master Bedroom has undergone a transformation in order to give us a few extra feet in the Great Room. Also, unlike July's plans, I've included measurements. They are not exact measurements, as I don't have those with this capture. However, they are close approximations.

 As you can see, we've flipped the layout of the Master Bedroom. It gives us a slightly smaller than planned bedroom (11x14 instead of 12x16), but it gives us a larger Great Room (22x22 instead of 19x22). That extra three feet in the Great Room will really make the different for a family of 5! We also plan on transforming the COMPLETELY dry basement (18x38) into a rec room for the kids. To give them space to hang out in, especially since we've got one tween and one that'll be a tween here shortly. My laundry space will be down there too. It'll take up about 10x10 of the space, which gives the kids an 18x20 space for a room of their own. That's awesome! (Yes, 8 feet are missing in the addition. We have stairs to consider.)

Also, I'm including the measurements of the kitchen. The open space above the sink will have floating shelves to display some of my Fiestware. All in all, we think it's a nice sized kitchen for the size of our house. We've also managed to stick a 32" wide, 24" deep pantry in there. I'm really excited about that, since it means I get to have THIS door on my pantry.

Blueprints

Well, since DH had to go back to work today, I don't have any progress updates or pictures. I am, however, going to be detailing the blueprints for this project. They are approximate blueprints.

This is the current layout of the house. (Or was, prior to our demolition.) As you can see, it's a funky layout. It's two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a funky maze of the rest of the rooms. There's only a full foundation under the main rectangle of the house. So, the living room, mudroom, and part of the kitchen and hallwayish thing needed to be completely tore down so that we could put a proper foundation under the new construction. The remaining rectangle shell will be taken down as well, but not for a while.

This is the final plan for what we're going to be doing. As you can see, it's now going to be a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch. It's also going to have one main great room that will be living, dining, and kitchen areas. Also, since this has been asked by plenty.. Yes, we realize that the bedrooms face the road. However, because no one will EVER use the front door to visit us (as the driveway is in the back), we chose to build to that. We will have a covered porch across the front of the house, which will be accessed by the door near the bedrooms. Aesthetically, it will look perfect and for our family, it will be great. Because there will be no loading bearing walls, as the children move out, DH and I can remove walls as we'd like. Eventually Kid Room 1 will become part of the main living space.

The inside of the house (pic heavy)

All of this will be gone, as we're pretty much knocking down the house, but I thought you might want to see what it looks like as we bought it. Fair warning, it's REALLY rundown. Also, the silver spray paint marks you see are what needs removed, which is pretty much everything.

 The covered back entrance/mudroom

 The stairs to the basement

 The dining room. I told you it was a disaster.

 The kitchen

 Some sort of hallway thing. However, this is where the stove was.

 The living room

 Bedroom 1

 Bedroom 2

 The bathroom

The mess in the garage

The BEFORE photos

These are the photos we took yesterday. Showing the property from every angle we could think of. That way people can see exactly how much we've set for ourselves. This property is run down. Even the grass has went to seed. It's taller than our son!

 Looking at the garage/house, trees in the background, tall grass in the foreground.

 Comparing the height of the grass to our 4 year old. It's some really tall grass.

 The garage. It's a nice two car garage that needs minimal work. There is tons of trash in the driveway though.

 The sideview of the house from the alley. Those two trees will be removed.

Yep, the front view of the house. Again, tall grass, overgrown trees.... Tons of work. 

Speaking of work, the plan is to knock down the little part sticking out, and make this into a 4 bedroom ranch style home. It's currently a 2 bedroom ranch.  Once I get inside and can get a current floorplan, I'll upload that, along with the plans for renovation. Also, one of the first things being done is removing all the tall trees you see behind the house, as well as the one in front of it and the two beside it. They are locust trees and are dying. This means that they are a danger not only to our house, but the neighboring house. So, down they'll come. That is the project for the upcoming weekend.