Well, one day, over a month ago now, it was raining. And not calmly. It was a blowing, freezing, ugly storm.
And on that day, standing in my kitchen, water started dripping into my house from the ceiling. (It has done this before.. but last year we got a brand new metal roof... so this didn't seem quite
right...)
Called Jared at work. He called the roof guys. Everyone showed up and checked things out. And it was as we had sort of already suspected... our ancient siding was completely shot.
It NEEDED replaced.
So, we'll replace it. But... if we're going to bother residing the whole house
now, shouldn't we maybe get the enclosed porch/front of the house the way we want it to look now, too (getting rid of some windows)? So they can just side the entire house, one time, and be done. ??
And the unanimous answer (between the two of us, ha) was: Why yes, yes we should.
And so here we are!
We've always sort of daydreamed about "one day" making the enclosed front porch into more USABLE space... or what if "some day" we could actually put the kitchen TABLE out there and make more room in our main living room space? What if we could take out the weird interior windows in our living room (that looked out onto the enclosed porch... and, let's face it, with 3 little boys, were just
waiting to be shattered..) and make a wall? Or an open doorway? What if we could remove the other 3 interior doors (all leading to said porch) and just have MORE open doorways? And more space?
What if... what if.. what if...
Well, it would be AWESOME. That's "what if."
And that's exactly how things are turning out!
It began with my extremely handy-man grandfather and very clever, eager husband. Jared gutted the porch (carpet, ceiling tiles, paneling) and then together he and Papa took out the windows, replaced the ones we wanted to keep with NEW windows, and constructed walls over the old window holes.
The Porch "Before":
The view as you entered through the front (storm) door
Another view of the hall and windows straight ahead
(There's that first interior window - on the left there? - that looks into the living room. And then there are also 2 doors down there that go into the house.)
And then here was the view to the left.
(windows, "front" door, and door to the kitchen.)
Oh, and there's that second interior window looking into our living/main room.
Then they replaced the porch door. And for the first time ever, we have an actual, wonderful, FRONT DOOR.
Then came the interior living room windows. GONE. One is now a wall, and one is now an incredible, open doorway.
They moved wiring for lights, rewired switches, and added electrical outlets. (My husband is so capable.)
We're now at the "drywall stage"... and every day it gets more and more exciting for me. It is looking so great!!
A bit of the "In Progress" ....
Windows gone.. and there's that new front door!
Building, building....
And now on to the inside....
Goodbye interior windows!
And, as I type this, the crew is banging on the walls outside right now, finishing up our new,
RED siding!
Here's a few of the "Current" (not really fair to refer to it as the "After" quite yet....)
New view when entering... looking to the left. See that wonderful, new, open doorway?
Yessss!
And now, when entering, looking down the hall straight ahead.
And the new, way more open, inside main room!
Are you in love? We sure are.
(.... and, because it takes me, like, all day to make a post and upload the photos)
Our new siding is now FINISHED!!!.....
The back - the other day. It was finished first.
And.. Ta-Da!!! Our cute little country house :)
And I will definitely post more updated photos as they happen throughout the rest of this process. But, for now, I just wanted to fill you in what's been going on around here... and how excited I am.
Although, I'm definitely not the only one.. oh man are these boys loving the Under Construction life.....
Flexin'. He is his father's son.
Workin' hard.... or hardly workin'? ;)
"We can fix it Daddy! Cuz we're the helpers!" - says Holden, 20 times a day.
And the old thumbs up! Lookin' good crew!!♥
