(Add a house to the house) 

The first thing you have to do in an operation of this type is watch loads of HGTV and TLC to see what other people are doing in terms of additions. After seeing lots of projects we were a little more knowledgeable but were mostly wondering what these people did to get their money (which they seem to have in great abundance).

The next thing we did was decide how much we wanted to spend - we will say this is $1000 (for discussion purposes) but would be willing to go as high as $1100 (which we didn't think would be at all necessary).

Design  "The Plan"
Next we get an architect. The first idea was to just add a house to the house - really, it seems he simply redrew the outline of the current house in our back yard.

He said the addition will cost about $800 (not the real amount, but you don't want to scare the kiddies). Great! me thinks, this is within our budget! However, after much consideration, we (not the architect) developed the "courtyard concept"...we just had to tell the architect we changed our minds.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, our guy decides he needs a real job, but he knows a guy...

On to the second guy - who apparently isn't great with a ruler (more on that later) but manages to get our ideas on paper in a form fit for bidding and permitting. Also he informs us that the low end of what we are considering is $1200 and can be as high as $1600. That's not bad, we can always sell a kidney on e-Bay.

Do
Now we need a contractor. After 20 "no call-back"s and 20 "no way jack"s we found 'the guy'. The price is $2,200...

...After 11 years of homeownership and many small and medium sized projects (all with budgets) I should have learned something about time and money relative to home projects. You probably know this also --> "the factor of two"

This theorem of home projects says: It always takes twice as long and costs twice as much, right?! (I am a college boy.)

...OK, I need some air, but agree to forge onward (remember, I'm not fond of lawyers). Apply "the factor of two" to the original budget - hey we're not too far off! So we make some minor concessions - there's a toilet, but it's not actually hooked up to anything, and when you come over...bring a flashlight...wiring is extra, who knew?! Now, we are right on budget (with the "factor of two") - $2,000! (For a minute there I thought we were going to spend way too much.)

Disaster?
When they came out to check the plan against the zoning requirements they find that the addition will be too close to the property line...by two feet. One other minor detail, the existing house was not drawn exactly correctly - the doorway in the back of the garage is actually bisected by a planned exterior wall (I said the second guy wasn't too good with a ruler).

Ok, a wall is easy to move on paper...unless your architect is one of the three architects in the western world who does not use a computer (like ours) and a new set of plans has to be hand drawn...ahhh yeah, that's extra (of course).

Meanwhile, back to the set back -- should be no problem, right?! - just request a variance, right!? Some of us were nervous that the delay would endanger the project, others were quite confident and were heard to say, "Don't worry honey, with the winters we have around here it shouldn't be a problem." Right!

Confidence faded (only slightly), when the first variance hearing was snowed out. At our rescheduled variance hearing we (and the other regular folks) were preceeded by a development corporation looking to pave over the last remaining 1/2 acre of natural habitat for the Spotted Wood Owl (who could object to that?!). Their presentation included many visual aides, free bumper stickers, etc...ten hours later, the common folk (that's us) were allowed to present their requests. We apologized deeply to the board for not bringing many visual aides or bumper stickers and hoped no one was offended. But they seemed to like our little plan (redrawn correctly this time) and even said so at the meeting - nothing is official until the letter is received. We were told this would take a few days....three weeks later...we were approved! Variance in hand we obtained a permit - excellent! We can actually start.

Demolition   Demolition
Two days hence, we had a back hoe in the back yard, and two days after that the porch was gone (I don't know where it went). [I know some of you are disappointed that I didn't throw in some double entandres about "back hoes" but, hey this is a family site!]

Delight
Well, we are finally finished the construction and much of the decorating (does that ever stop?). Our Porta potty is now a dim but pleasant memory. (Just click here if you can't quite remember.)
The balance of the process is better to look at than to read about (or live through) so click on the links or stop by. We won't be there, we'll be at work as I just discovered that the whole thing has to be paid for!! Next time I'm going to ask more questions.

Enjoy the pics! You can skip to finished if you're an "end product" type of person - you won't miss any witty commentary because this is the last of it. Thanks for "clickin' on" us!