Day 15

The roof over the main house is up and the foundation has been poured. We've been lucky to have had great weather for the most part. You'll notice that the original roof is still up. This is to keep the house water tight since we're keeping the hardwood floors.

Day 13

I tried to take photos over the weekend of the progress, but photos cannot describe what is going on.

I've decided that remodeling is kind of like giving birth, though I haven't given birth so what do I know. You know giving birth is going to be painful, but you really have no idea what pain is until you've experienced it. That's what remodeling, or should I say gutting, a home is like. I knew it was going to be tough, but I had no idea how tough. It looks and sounds exciting, but we're still in the stressful/terrified stage.

Our contractor seems to have worked out how to deal with the permit issue of not being able to work on the side addition, but we won't know how behind we are until the ZBA decision is published. I'm still blown away that it was never done and when the building department realized their mistake, it should have been written and published immediately. It may get issued by the end of next week. Seriously, where is the accountability?! I guess that's government for you.

Day 9

All large projects run into one problem or another along the way. Turns out, we just ran into a big one. The lovely town of Andover never wrote or published the zoning board of appeal (ZBA) decision we applied for back in February, that means the building permit issued at the end of March never should have been issued. The town "took" back the building permit, and as a compromise, issued a permit for the back addition but we'll have to wait 5 weeks for the permit for the side addition. No work on the side can continue. This is a construction logistical nightmare.

Day 8

The foundation will be poured today for the addition in the back and side where the kitchen will be.
Here is a view of the front and side. This is the side where the mud room use to be and where the bump out for the kitchen will now be.
That's the back portion of the deck in the yard upside down.

Day 6

See those cinder blocks? That's were the mud room use to be. The deck is also all torn up. We found out this morning during our first weekly onsite meeting that all the deck railings are rotten because the company that built the deck didn't use pressurized wood. Duh!

Day 1

Construction begins today. I can't believe this day has finally come. I had no idea the amount of stress and anxiety both Brian and I would experience during these last few weeks. It certainly has been a difficult time.

We're pretty much all moved out, with the big move taking place this weekend. I'm out of town for work so I won't be able to see what's been done until later this week. I'm just praying that the whole house isn't' covered in cement dust.

I hope to have pictures to post soon.