quote:

Originally posted by Bev:
The one thing that we did not do when we built our last housewas to add a hollow tube from the basement to the attic. This could hold any new wiring technology that becomes the thing of the future.

About windows for your new addition, check out Anderson. They have some awesome windows where you can add a variety of stained glass in craftsman, FLW, or arts & crafts styles. Their website is hard to use. It might be easier to order their book. I attended the Journal of Light Construction seminars in Minneapolis last month, and went to a seminar put on by Anderson about there replacement windows. They have the ability to install either form the outside, or the inside, depending on how you size them, and they also have 3 different degrees of sill tilt. They seemed like a great ticket, but the only problem is, is that there are several rotting sills on the home, and the replacements depend on setting on top of the existing sloped sills. It was a nice product though, and they had the exact window configuration as is in the home now, which I liked, only they didnt have the wavy glass. hehehe

What is your roof line of the addition going to look like? Are you going to hide from the front view of the house? Is the South end the back end or side of the house? I dont have a picture of the south end of the house, what you see, is the north front, and the west side in the pictures I have posted. The south elevation looks exactly like the north, and my intent, is to add 16 feet onto the south, with the ceiling heights matching up. Project the valleys down to the rake edges, which would leave about a 3-4 foot knee wall in the upper level room, and the continue the dormer out to the south end of the 16 foot addition. I am monkeying around with a couple additional dormers off the large roof addition, to break it up. The addition would not be seen from the road, nor the highway approaching from the east. I know, that doesnt make it right, if its overpowering, I'm not cast in stone about this yet, and am definitley still in design stages.

People say that it is almost cheaper to add on a new kitchen with updated wiring and appliances instead of trying to rennovate the small bungalow kitchens. A lot of people just put a bedroom above it.

Are you going to include a new half bath downstairs that shares the same wet wall with the master? There is a full bath on the main level, just off the kitchen. It has a 36 inch vanity, and a 30 inch shower, so its not much, but adequate, since there is no bedrooms on the main level now. I dont need to tie the addition into the wet wall of the existing bath, because the sewer main is under the foundation wall I am adding onto, and I can tie directly onto it with the drains. The home has a new septic sytem, installed last fall, that has never been used.

That new stone sounds perfect. Are you still in the design stage? yes, very much so. Our 6 year old home is on the market, which is real stinky right now. Our hopes, were to sell our home, and move into the bungalow, as it is, through the winter, and see how it "treated" us, and then decide if we were going to do the restoration, or tear it down, and replace it with a similar looking structure, that fit our needs. Everyone who has seen the home, tells us, "you cannot tear this home dow"! so the plans are underway to forging onward with the restoration designs and plans, and do it when our home sells For right now, we ar eholding two mortgages for the dirst time in our life. Its scary, but we feel we are able to easily go for 12-18 months this way. The problem is, there is no money right now available to remodel a perfectly good home, in hopes of our current home selling. I dont want to borrow any more than I already have. When my home sell, we will be in good shape, as I have roled over 5 new home sales over the last 12 yars into our current home. I dont owe much on that one, but owe almost everything on the new acreage.

Bev.