Early Plans
Before we bought the house we knew it needed a lot of work. Could
we alter it the way we wanted and more importantly, could we afford it? So
before making an offer we brought in a local contractor and ran our ideas by
him. Our thoughts were pretty straight forward. Could we build a garage on the
side and turn the old garage in the back into a family room. “Sure” was the answer.
Could it be done for a reasonable (a/k/a affordable) price? “Don’t see any
problem with that” was the response. And with that we entered the magical world
of morphing building costs. We, like any good couple, looked at our finances, the costs of building, the potential for the house and where it was located and decided it was perfect. Our offer was accepted, we signed, purchased and away we went. The house was ours.
The first thing we did was to have a plumber in and drain
all of the pipes and winterize the house. Our intent was to have plans drawn up and
begin work as soon as possible. So there was no need to waste money on heat.
This turned out to be a great idea. What we didn’t know at the time was that
the house would not only sit empty for the winter of 2011 but a year, and a
winter season later, it was still empty. Still unworked on.
We didn’t deserve to have so much fun.
