Ch Ch Cha Changes

Today was the first day that both kids went back to school since before Christmas.  So I did what any self respecting mother would do.  Dropped those babies off as fast as I could, and high tailed it to the local 24 hr Fitness.  Or as I like to call it this time of the year, New Years Resolution Central.  Way more people then normal exercising way harder then they need to.  But hey, kudos to them for at least getting there.  Seeing as that is half the battle.  At least it is mine.  However, I am pretty sure the lady doing box jumps next to me (who had no business doing box jumps in the first place,) will most likely not be able to walk tomorrow.  It was a nice 45 min of moving the ol' badonkadonk, doing some ab work, and stretching.  In out and off to take a shower (at home) learned my lesson there http://www.callabee.blogspot.com/2012/09/and-then-this-one-time-at-gym.html Showering is good, and is becoming a bit of a luxury these days.

So we are doing a bunch of stuff around here.  By stuff I mean my home and work life is going to be a permanent construction zone for the majority of the year.  I am ok with this seeing as it will gain me 1800 more sq. ft. on my existing 900 sq. ft. house.  Can I get a holla' for more then 1 toilet?  I've also yet to figure out if it will make me manic to keep up with all of the cleaning or if I will just say F' it.  Seeing as the dust is pretty much awful out here anyway now before we start knocking down walls, I am leaning towards the F' it option.

All of our ideas and design are headed to the Engineer next week.  Once that is done I suppose I should pull a permit with the County.  We have always done this kind of stuff by ourselves.  Meaning we don't use any outside contractors unless we need to.  This time won't be any different, except the County gets the final say and inspectors will be hanging out periodically.   We also ended up not going with an Architect.  Between Boy Wonder who does design work and plans daily and my knack for driving him crazy by pinning ridiculously complicated ideas like floor to ceiling windows on Pinterest, we were more then set for our simple rectangle addition.  The County basically said we could hand them the plans on a cocktail napkin, but as long as it was engineered they were happy.  Did I mention how happy I am to live in the Unincorporated County vs City Limits?

Obviously we can't do everything ourselves.  When it comes to things like excavating for example, we will be responsible for clearing the humongous pile of dirt when the excavator is done digging up the old water cistern to make room for the basement instead of paying him to do it.  Wasn't planning on a basement, but when you have to dig up a Silence of the Lambs style concrete storage container that goes 9 ft. deep, ya get yourself a basement.  I am sure I will appreciate the extra space later down the line when we finish it into a game room/ tv room/ teenager make out cave.

I also don't own concrete foundation forms (blankets yes) but do have a commercial account open with a concrete company so when it is time to pour the foundation, Mr. Doyle and his rubber boots and float will be there for the delivery alongside a friend of ours who does own the forms.

This is how we plan on gittin' er done.  By working alongside Contractors we have worked with in the industry for the last 14 yrs..  Pretty sure by the time it is all said and done we might need to throw a Marriage Counsellor into the mix too.  Because living with Dave, working with Dave, and adding onto the house with Dave, might just send me over the deep end.

Hopefully posting pictures here and keeping my lovely friends and family updated with progress will keep me sane.  If however I show up on your doorstep in desperate need of a break with no hair on my head, just let me in.  I promise I'll wash the sheets before I go.

In the meantime I will leave you with a picture of one of our beloved employees.  We are currently in the middle of replacing the metal roof on our 40x60 shop before the snow shows its pretty face on Friday.  The shop is located on the back East side of our property.  Thanks to the pitch on the shop roof being so high, and the area in the driveway in which Dave took the picture, it really looks like we have little elves or fairies working for us.  :)