Preparing for the Movers

The Surprise Lily, Lycoris radiata, is up and blooming under the Paperbark Maple in the front yard.  This is the only one that has survived critters chewing off the leaves in the winter.

The garden will keep growing, and needing care, even as we are preparing the house for its major renovation.  Over the last 19 years we have done necessary maintenance, such replacing the furnace, the water heater, the roof.  But every time we hired an architect and developed a redesign, something demanded the money we had set aside.  So we still have the original 1963 kitchen and bathroom among other delights.

Two years ago we went back to our architect who had developed an exciting and ambitious design in 2013. We asked him to simplify it, to scale it back.  We could no longer afford the grand design.  He did a great job honoring our needs. But it took another year and a half to get it through all of the county permitting process.  In June we selected a contractor, and applied for a construction loan. We closed on the loan three days ago, borrowing more money to do the renovation than we originally paid for the house.

Here is the front of the house now.  This is where the most dramatic changes will be seen.

 

The back side of the house will look slightly different with new windows and siding. 

The main floor will be gutted, so it needs to be empty.  All of the artwork, photographs, and other decorative items were moved to our condo in DC. The rest has been moved down to the basement for the duration. Today it only has the large furniture which will be moved to a storage bin tomorrow.  So, walking through, this is the existing kitchen, with copper tiles on the backsplash area.

The space for the living room and dining room will remain the same, with changes around the edges and the wood paneling replaced with drywall.

Finally, my office will get new windows that will keep cold or hot air outside.

I will be putting up new pictures as the work progresses so you can see the transformation.