What We Did

What We Did:

We didn't want to move since we loved our neighbors and neighborhood so much. It had good schools,
an accessible outdoor swimming pool, and it was near our church. So we hired a builder, created a plan,
and decided to build a 2nd story addition. We didn't calculate what the investment would be worth or
whether we would recoup our costs. And we knew we were probably overbuilding as our neighborhood
has mostly one-story homes. But, we knew we wanted to stay in this neighborhood, so we remodeled
the home to meet our family's needs and didn't worry about what happened if we moved later.

Since we had three kids under the age of 4, we moved out for the remodel and rented a home nearby.
It took five months to add about 1,000 square feet, six rooms, and a lot of curb appeal. I do recall it as
the darkest winter on record for our family... we were pretty stressed. Thankfully, it went faster than most
remodels we've heard of and that was mostly because we had a great builder, but also because Dave
pitched in to help finish work at key times. The only casualty of the remodel was our original work of
hanging wallboard had to be torn out. But we survived, and happily moved into our enlarged home as the
tulips were starting to bloom in our yard.