Where it all began...

The contractor is still here although they're finally winding down (I long for the day I can stay in my pajamas past 7am). It's been eight (8) months of early bird contractors coming into our house and making noise and dust and creating loads upon loads of stressful decision making. The project was estimated to take three (3) months : +

You see when we first bought this place a couple of years ago, we camped out in an apartment over our barn while we inadvertently gutted our kitchen and only bath. Oops! Well, we thought we'd be cooped up in the barn for about a month - or so but it took FIVE before we actually got to move into the grown-up house. The "or so" is meant to elicit mere seconds, minutes, perhaps days but in fact "or so" turns out to mean (so use it cautiously), "a hell of a lot longer than you could ever imagine."

So when we hired the contractor to do the rest of the remodel (adding a half-story dormer, upstairs bathroom, office, and bedroom, a wraparound porch, and all new windows and doors) and he told us that we could stay in the downstairs part of the house while they did this work - we were thrilled as we had by then become use to living in the grown-up house.

It's been quite exhausting as you can imagine. The lack of quiet, privacy, the noise, the dust and the constant barrage of decision making regarding overhangs, parting beads, pitch, profiles, RO's, code, standard vs. custom, floor joists, headers and so on, can be quite overwhelming.

But at last the dust is beginning to settle and we see the end in sight. 

The photo below is of hubby during the first month of the remodel. After having already worked on the house an entire year before the contractor showed up, we continued to be pretty hands on and tried to help out as much as possible.