Reflecting on 2008

2008 was an eventful year for us. In January we started packing up the house to begin rennotaving the house. In February we bought a travel trailer and parked it beside the house. The second week in February we moved into the trailer and began working to gut the inside of the house. March marked the true beginning to our expansion project. We began the project by tearing off the small garage attached to the house. Then the foundation was built on both ends of the house. This process went to smoothly; I thought this whole project was going to be a breeze. Little did I know, the waiting game was about to begin. It took about a month for the framers to come and begin on the additions. Once here, they ran into some difficulties with attaching the new parts to the old house. The old part of the house was built in 1914 and moved to where it now sits in the early 70s. With the strong winds out here, apparently the old house began to lean, making every part of the house crooked. How do you attach a straight house to a crooked house? About 6 weeks after starting (it should have been about 3 weeks), the framers finally answered that question and finished their part of the project.
While the additions were slowly progressing, the inside of the house was totally changing. Two walls were taken down, changing the kitchen and two bedrooms into one large room. The old ugly paneling on the walls was taken down, and piece by piece, each board of the beadboard walls removed, scraped, sanded, and stored in the barn. The acoustical tiles stapled to the beadboard ceiling were removed. The staples holding the tiles were removed one by one, and then the ceiling was scraped, sanded, primed, and painted. Windows and doors were removed new windows and doors were created. Then we started reassemblying the walls with the beadboard salvaged from the old walls. At this time, the kitchen cabinets were installed, turning a big empty space into a recognizable room.
In early June, the additions were finally ready to be painted. To save money, we decided to paint; this is a mistake we will never make again. Thankfully we have a friend who used to paint for a living, so he helped guide us through the process of priming, sanding, caulking, taping, and painting. After the painting, installation started. Flooring, lighting, and appliances went in by mid July. The last weekend in July, we finally moved out of the travel trailer and into the newly remodeled house. A project which was supposed to take three months actually took about six, but we've already so enjoyed the new house. Remodeling is not something I would wish on anyone, but now we are reaping the benefits of the hard work of so many.