Anxious For Our Addition
If you’ve been following along on my previous posts, you know that I took a break from working on the master bathroom because Matt urged me to take a week to focus on some other areas of the house that had gotten out of control. I even had a dumpster delivered (also at Matt’s request) so that I could get rid of as much stuff as possible as quickly as possible.
I was expecting the dumpster to be here only seven days, which means that it should have been picked up by last Monday evening. But instead, the guy left it here until Thursday. So I had a couple more days than expected to really fill that thing up. And I took advantage of it! When he came to pick it up, the dumpster was as full as it could have been for him to still safely transport it down the road. (And I’m pretty sure he had a cover to put over it just to be sure it was safe.)
So our house is definitely feeling “lighter” now. While the sunroom still has a long way to go before I would call it organized, I can at least open the music room doors now and not feel incredibly overwhelmed by the mountain of stuff. There’s actually room to walk around now. I can very easily get to my tool chest, or to the washer and dryer. And the carport feels like it’s been transformed as well.
But spending so much time in that sunroom as I have in the last two weeks has made me even more anxious to tear it down. I’ve already shown y’all the horror that is the floor in there…
I haven’t even touched that since then (so yes, it still looks like that a week later) because frankly, I don’t want to stir up those particles in the air. I’m definitely going to take the suggestion that many of you gave me and hire that out. Over the last nine years, I’ve paid my dues with projects like this in this house. I’m ready to let someone else tackle this one.
But even when that’s gone, there’s simply nothing salvageable about this room. The walls are all water damaged at the bottom because rain gets under them every time we have a heavy rain. The windows are all old single-pane aluminum frame windows. And the drop-down ceiling (the kind that’s used in commercial buildings) has water damage that’s been there since before we moved in.
I just want it gone. I want the whole thing gone. I want our addition built sooner than later.
I daydream about this addition often. I can’t wait to have this final piece of the puzzle in place. Once this addition is built, our home will feel complete. To refresh your memory, this is what our floor plan looks like right now…
(I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the measurements. I’ve edited these floor plans so many times over the years, and numbers have been deleted, edited, etc.)
And here’s the long term goal…
You can compare the two here…
I look at that long term floor plan regularly and dream of the day that we’ll have a real master bedroom, rather than being in a cramped guest bedroom. (The size of our current room would probably be fine except that when you add wheelchairs and Hoyer lifts into the equation, a decent-sized room can start to feel very cramped.) I look forward to the day that I can get Matt out of bed with the Hoyer lift and not run into walls.
I dream of having a laundry room. And actual laundry room.
And that large family/media room is going to be so nice, especially now that we’re starting to host more people at our house on a regular basis. The living room is nice. It’s fine. But it was never meant to be that cushy, cozy room where people can kick their shoes off, put their feet up on a big comfy ottoman, and settle in for a move night or anything like that.
Anyway, the whole reason I bring this up is because Matt and I hadn’t talked about our addition in quite some time. We’ve had other priorities, and our attention has been on other things.
But after working in the sunroom for almost two weeks, and becoming even more determined that I want that room torn down ASAP, I decided to share my thoughts with Matt a few days ago. I told him that I want us to start prioritizing that addition, and get it done ASAP. His response, “Oh, good! Me, too!”
YAAAYYYYY!!! I’m so glad we’re on the same page!
I still don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like as far as a definite timeline. Matt still wants a driveway before the addition, and I agree with him on that. Now that he’s actually getting out of the house, and I have to pull the van back to the carport to get him into the van, a driveway is definitely higher on the priority list. But as soon as we get that out of the way, we can start seriously planning and working towards the addition.
I’m glad I took the week-and-a-half to clear out some clutter. And I’m even more glad that Matt and I are on the same page with the addition. That will be fun to look forward to, plan, and see come to fruition after years of dreaming about it. But for now, I have a master bathroom to finish. 🙂
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
Can’t wait to see the bathroom buttoned up and what comes next! I don’t remember where you landed on the driveway (stabilized gravel?) but I’m sure you’ll bring us along for the ride.
If the landscape designer was correct about the price, we’ve decided to stick with concrete. That would definitely be my preference.
Yay!! Moving closer to your house goals is awesome. My only suggestion in regards to timing…if you build that addition AFTER the driveway, there will be all sorts of construction trucks; etc coming and going and I would hate for your new driveway to get abused. This happened to us, albeit it wasn’t a new driveway, but the weight of a concrete truck and other machinery put a number of cracks in our driveway.
This is a very good point. We had our driveway paved in asphalt in early April this year. In mid-July we had a generator installed. During that installation we had to get a line run to our propane tank. The propane company brought in a truck with a crane on it to lower the trenching machine into the yard and the truck had stabilizing feet on it that were set directly on the driveway. That left deep depressions in the new driveway and I had to get the asphalt company back out here to repair those depressions and we had to pay for it. 🙁
Definitely think on switching the order to avoid damaging the driveway.
How very exciting to get closer to making your home dreams reality!
My thoughts too. Our sidewalk got damaged due to trucks
My thoughts exactly. Maybe there’s room next to the proposed driveway for construction trucks to get to the addition. Just need to be home to make sure trucks know where they can drive.
Good point. I hadn’t even considered that. I shared your comment with Matt, and he agreed that the driveway should come after the addition in light of your comment.
Always a good thing to be on the same page with your partner! I also think when the addition is done , the finishing won’t be as long a process. Kristi it’s always that one big hurdle ..$$$.. At least you want to stay in your home. My problems lie in how much should we invest into a home we want to move out of. Home prices & your (our) equity are in your (our) favor right now which is a good thing , but interest rates are climbing to borrow against. Always something !
Strongly suggest you consider getting an overhead tracking lift in the new master bedroom. We recently got a ceiling track hoist for my husband and it is SO MUCH easier and quicker. I cannot emphasise enough how much less effort is needed. I can easily and safely manage to transfer my husband on my own, whereas I needed help before. We are making back the cost rapidly by not needing paid carers to do transfers. When we do have carers, they all really love the track hoist, which most of their clients don’t have. You could even get the ceiling tracks now and have the set up moved later.
Love seeing the progress on your beautiful bathroom!
I agree! Now is the time to check into the Track system so that even if you don’t get one now so that you can build in the supports so you don’t have to tear up your ceiling later. We had one that went to our bathroom so Jim could transfer in and out of our shower.
OOO I am so happy to read that last sentence!
I’m working on it! I promise! 🙂 As I was working on the bathroom yesterday, I was so discouraged at how long these last few projects are taking. Getting the wainscoting finished is so painstakingly slow, but I want it done right, so I’m not willing to cut corners. But I was very discouraged yesterday. Today, however, I woke up with a positive attitude, and I’m just going to keep at it, one foot in front of the other, until it’s finished, no matter how long it takes! I’ve come too far to give up now! 😀
I agree with the others who are warning you about getting your driveway done first. There’s also another pragmatic issue to think about and that is where you can locate temporary laundry facilities when the addition is torn off.
Ugh. Yeah. Those decisions stress me out. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do about that.
I have often wondered where does Matthew game now. He had a whole room for this and it’s been gone for years.
He has his favorite consoles hooked up to the TVs we have in our bedroom, the sitting room (breakfast room), and the studio. When I start working on the home gym, I will add a gaming station in there for him. But he agreed that a home gym would be far more valuable to him than a gaming room.
This is totally off-subject, but did you realize that on your floor plan, the dimensions for the guest bedroom state that it’s 11’4″ by 5’10” ? Sounds a little cramped! 🙂
Haha! Yes. That should be a 15 and not a 5. 😀 Somewhere along the way (I’ve been editing the same floor plans over and over again for years now), the 1 got lost.
absolutely love following your house rebuild, and what you have achieved so far, and all your photo,s and explanations on how you achieved and solved problems you came across, .
Would the machinery required to tear down the sunroom and rebuild the addition possibly cause damage to your new driveway? Just a thought to consider. I can’t wait to see the progress!!