Starting Fresh

What a crazy way to start the new year.  After finding out in March, 2015, that we were due with baby number 3 (Hi, N!) in December, we realized that we needed a bigger house.  Things were already getting cramped with C (4yr) and A (1yr)...adding a new baby into the mix was not going to work.



In 2009, we had bought a two-story dutch colonial with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. On the first floor was a tiny foyer, nice sized living room, small office, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, and 3-season patio.  On the second floor was one bathroom, a cedar closet (<3), and three bedrooms, one with a full staircase leading to the attic.  



One of the best things about the house was that it was on a double lot (this is a picture of the side yard from the rear of the house)!

 Which meant that we had ample room to expand!  Before moving in, we:
- Got rid of the asbestos in the house (some of it was even wrapped around the pipes in the basement!)
- Took care of the water issues in the basement - we installed a french drain and got rid of all the mold in the basement that had accumulated
- Ripped up the carpet that was in every room and found beautiful hardwood floors
- Removed all of the wallpaper (sometimes 2-3 layers deep!) in all of the rooms and re-painted
- Took down the wall in between the dining room and kitchen to open up the space
- Doubled the size of the kitchen and put in all new cabinets/appliances
- Created a mudroom/playroom next to the kitchen where the 3-season patio was
- Combined two bedrooms into a master suite with a full bathroom and walk in closet

We could not have done all of that without the help of lots of family members. 

Eventually I'll get around to inserting some pictures of the work we did on the house here but for now...let's move forward.