It all started with our crummy kitchen counters. The counters are painted plywood as best as I [Michael] can tell, and they're not contiguous, with seams on either side of the dishwasher installation. The solution? Replace the countertops.
And so it begins. Of course, it isn't as easy as just replacing the countertops. We have kitchen storage issues, like most folks, and would like additional cabinetry to store the various appliances, dishes, and foodstuffs we like to keep around. We do not wish to sacrifice counter space to expand the cabinetry; if anything, we want more counter space. We've played around with different ways to accomplish this, but given the current confines of the kitchen there just aren't many options, and nothing that gives us what we want.
Besides the kitchen, we have long eyed the "back" of the house with some measure of disdain. Our four small bedrooms are currently accessed by a narrow hallway running down the center of the bedroom wing. The whole arrangement reminds us of mobile home life. For some time we've toyed with the possibility of changing the layout, but as long as we stay within the confies of our exterior walls we keep coming up one room short when exploring our options.
And then comes the energy efficiency issue. Our home continues to be an energy hog. While we don't use as much energy as we used to, we still use considerably more than we should have to in order to stay warm. The next step in our energy improvement plan is work on the exterior walls and some of the windows.
So...
The solution seems to be an addition to the back of the house. This will give us the space we need for all our plans. By incorporating the expansion into the siding/window project we think we'll actually enjoy lower heating costs after the expansion than we're seeing now. We'll also gain the space we need for the renovation project, because we'll need to clear out rooms in order to reorient and rebuild walls and floors.
The floorplan here should give folks an idea of what we're contemplating. At this point we're thinking about building the shell for the expansion this spring and summer and encapsulating (siding, insulation, and windows) the whole house before next winter. After that, we'll start renovating from the south side of the bedroom corridor and work our way north.
We had our first snowfall last week. It's all gone now, but while it lasted the kids had a good time. There will be more to come soon, with snow beginning to appear in the forcast as autumn gives way to colder weather.
Sometimes Michael Robert reminds me a lot of myself as a child (I suppose this is a common observation between parents and their children). To illustrate, I offer two pictures of smiling boys. Which one am I? Which one is my son? If I were to carefully select some of the pictures of me and my little boy the difference might be a little harder to tell.
We were watching "An Inconvenient Truth" last night. Michael asked a question about the show and we were telling him that our planet was in trouble. He said that we (mommy and daddy) should fix it. I explained that I would be too old to do much good, but that he wasn't, and that he was going to have to save the planet; he would be our superhero. He really liked that idea.
Our son: savior of the planet. 
