My New Best Friend Ben What's-His-Face

About 15 years ago we got a great deal on our then out-of-date house in a super neighborhood. We have spent time and some of Rolan's hard earned dough to update and improve said home, making it comfortable for the four of us.

Our neighbors are quiet folk and keep to themselves for the most part. Until last Christmas. One of the well improved homes down the street had a Christmas party (well, not the home but the people inside it. But I bet you knew that.) Anyway, it is one of those homes that sort of looks like this one in the way of floor plans but they had added a beautiful solarium off of the dining room. OH MY. I tucked away the ideas of how that would look on my house and thought nothing more about it until the three (instead of two) girls plan presented itself.
Its not that we wouldn't fit. Its just that we would fit better with a little more room. The eating area off the kitchen has always been too tight with just four of us and the family room is just plain silly with people and tree stuffed in there at Christmas... not to mention how much easier it would be if we bumped out the bedrooms too. We could get away with not having bunk beds!

If you are following my thinking here, you can see I'm talking about some serious renovation. How much could it be? There is no question that to make the bedrooms and family room bigger we would have to excavate. Yeah, the backhoe thing. I came up with some numbers by doing careful internet research. I invited a poor fellow to look and tell me what he thought. In the end it was going to be slightly more expensive than I thought. (I bet you knew that too!) I talked to an other construction company and asked them if they could do it for the price I wanted (more reasonable on my part but do-able).

Waiting for the final plans now. In the mean time, the home loan rates are dropping and I'm wiping the perspiration from my brow. I think we can afford this! We got the construction company at a good time and hopefully the work will be done before fall. Hey, who is laughing?! It could be embarrassing to bring the girls home to a bedroom that is missing the outside wall! I could always put them in the camper...