House Swap

Over a year ago, Jimmy and I were talking about selling our house and buying a larger home and his parents were talking about downgrading to less space.  We LOVED our house, but as we were wanting to start a family we really just wanted more space.  His parents casually mentioned that we should arrange to switch homes!  We are actually in neighborhoods right next to each other so each home is the exact location we both wanted to stay in.  We knew that if we did this there would be several upgrades/changes to his parents home we would want as it’s an awesome house, but was built 25 years ago.  Jimmy’s aunt is an architect so she has worked tirelessly on plans for us and Jimmy’s dad is a contractor so he has worked just as hard on finding the right people to do the work.  It has been SO fun to slowly see it coming together after we were talking about it for what seemed like an eternity.  The logistics were stressful, but everything is working out great.  We both packed up and in one day moved our stuff to their house and vice versa.  Jimmy and I are living upstairs in our “old” house while the renovations are being completed.  We are so thankful for his parents!  So…while our life has been packed in boxes for the past couple of months we are very excited to move into our new house in a few short months…hopefully.   So…here’s what we are doing to the house…

• The house is in a flood zone…which in turn means it is elevated.  You originally entered the house on the bottom floor and immediately walked upstairs to the “entry” area.  We are adding front steps, a more prominent front door, and porch. 
• We are enclosing what was once a small screened in porch off of the master bedroom that they never used and it will be the laundry/office.  I am so excited about this!  This is connected to my closet and the bedroom.  Only two steps to put my laundry away.  I will be working from home once the babe arrives so this will also allow me a designated space to work.
• A small portion of a large sun porch/extra living room is being enclosed off of the master bedroom to make another closet which will allow us to each have our own closets.  This will be perfect as Jimmy needs almost as much closet space as I do to store all of his guns/hunting/fishing crap.  He definitely wasn’t getting his fair share at our old house!
• We are knocking out a large wall that ran in between the kitchen/laundry room and dining room.  We are also adding a large bay window off of the kitchen.  This is really opening up the house!
• The kitchen and master bath are completely gutted…so new cabinets/fixtures/tile/shower/tub/sinks/EVERYTHING!
• New siding on the outside.

This is a front view of the new steps, porch, front door as of Friday.  You can see where you originally entered below the porch…this will now be where we enter from the garage and will serve as a mud room.  Many more before/after pics to come.

Needless to say, we are SO EXCITED!  We are HOPING to moving in sometime in September…but we shall see.  I can’t wait to get settled in before the baby arrives!