October 24

We are at last moved into the new house, moving in about a month ago. We are all enjoying the extra space.  The kids love their bedrooms and we enjoy having our own bathroom.

Rachel’s favorite room is the kitchen. We went from a cramped galley kitchen to a much more open layout.  Now everyone can see and be seen - a big deal for our kids.

We still have a lot of yard work to do outside, but we are pleased to be in and settled at this point.  Of course, if you ask us again in six months, we will probably be itching for another challenge.

Please stop by and visit us sometime.  We would be glad to show you our new digs. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of the transformation.

June 13

It has been a couple months, but we are making progress.  The second story is fully framed in and sided.  Inspections have been holding us up a little bit, but we expect to start dry-walling and painting in the next couple weeks.  We are hoping to be in before August.  We are getting very excited, so stay tuned...

Apr 9

A few of you have accused me of being a slacker in updating our website, but I promise you that the real construction has just started in the last 2 weeks.  It took a full month for us to obtain our permits due to our house being 18” too close to our property line.  We had to decide whether to get a variance (time and money) or concede 18” on the top level, so we chose the latter.  I’ve added a few photos to the album on the next page (scroll to the bottom).  You’ll see a big difference!

Feb 6

We recently purchased a lovely gem of a house in a town we’ve loved for 11 years now.  Please join us on our journey as we watch this bright orange rancher be transformed into a 2-level Craftsman.  The reno started on Jan 29, and we are in the process of getting all of the necessary permits to take off that roof and get to work.  I say we, but really “we” are just signing papers, writing checks, and taking pictures of this exciting process. 

The house is currently a 53 year old, 1200 sq ft, 3 bed, 1.5 bath home that is chopped up into a lot of little rooms.  Many of the interior walls have already been taken down to make a more open floor plan.  The front door will be moved to the middle, and the porch will span the entire length of the house.  The room all the way to the right, next to the porch, is a bedroom that we are going to keep, while adding 3 more bedrooms upstairs.  The space I’m most excited about is my upstairs laundry.  Yes, laundry on the second level, just a moment from all of the bedrooms.  If you live in NJ, you understand how rare (and exciting) this is! 

I will update these pages with more pictures as the weeks go by, so check back often.  Meanwhile, go to the next page to see what we have so far.