DW2DT 2013... and so it begins

We’re kicking off something big around here – really big.  Something that’s been in the works on and off for at least 5 years.  Something big for our family, that hopefully, will bring us some much needed relief and provide the backdrop for many years of memories.  We’re finally making a move on something that has literally eaten us alive at times, something we’ve analyzed to death, planned and replanned, questioned and answered and dreamed about. 

We’re building our house.  Is it our dream house, one that we’d build if money were no option?  No, but how many of us really have a house like that?  What we are building is a house that we will love and will ideally suit us until the kids are long gone – that’s a dream in my books!

When we bought our house in 2006, we knew it would be too small to raise a family in, but we chose the location based on our plans to have a family.  Well, we were right on both counts.  The neighborhood is awesome for kids, and we’ve really come to love it.  The proximity to the lake, our yard and the huge number of families with young kids make it exactly the kind of place where we want to raise our kids.  The problem, as predicted, is that our house, at 942 sq ft, is just too small! 

So we’re ripping the roof off and going double tall (DT)

By which I mean, we’re adding a second story to our house.  The current 2bdrms on the first floor will be repurposed into an office and a family room.  The family room will be connected to the kitchen/dining room and feature another slider out to the backyard.  Upstairs, each of the kids will get their own room and a bathroom to share, while Matt and I will have a master suite, with our own bathroom and a walk in closet.  We’ll also move the laundry to the second floor.  We expect this endeavor to take about 4 months.

So if we’re busting at the seams now, how can we possibly live in the house during construction?  Well, we can’t.  That’s there the DW (Double Wide) comes in.  We kicked around a lot of ideas about where to live during the project, and ended up buying a travel trailer aka camper to live in.  It has a couple of slide outs and is fairly roomy, for a camper.  It allows us to stay “on site”, so we can fully appreciate the construction as it happens.  We also plan to do some of the work ourselves, so being on site will facilitate this as well.  It also means we get to enjoy our neighborhood all summer, and not have to fully move out – the kitchen will stay intact, our dressers will be accessible in the basement, etc.   

So stay tuned, as Double Wide to Double Tall (DW2DT) 2013 kicks off in the next week or so… it’s going to be quite a ride!