The Project Brief

When we talked about ‘the renovation’, we were all sorts of dreamers. We could bump the house out and back and up! We could install solar panels! Wallpaper is totally in! Okay, that last one was just me.

Then slowly we started to get a little more serious. What’s most important? How would we go about this? Are we really willing to do what it takes to make this happen? We decided we were.

Fast forward to our getting an architect and a builder. Now, you can sit around with these folks all you want, dreaming and surmising and fantasizing. You can say you're looking for a city-chic Swiss chalet, and then get weirdly intense about, say, the shape of your bathroom faucets and how you want to loathe stucco but you can't - it's just so texture-y. That sort of random word association approach to construction will get you disappointing houseplans and a high architect bill. Plus, I'm pretty sure you'll be that client they all horrify one another with at their builder conventions.

You have to focus. That's where The Project Brief comes in.

First, about the second story

When they install a temporary utility pole in your front yard, you know something is about to happen.

Oh, hi! Welcome to Southern Reno - The Second Story. We're documenting a renovation we've dreamed about for years.

Above is a picture of our current home. She's cute, huh?  Quaint, cozy little three bedroom, two bath with full basement. Ah, but she yearns to be bigger. She wants to be our home forever, and give us no reason to ever look longingly at another. So she's going under the knife. Or the saw, rather. Lots of 'em we expect.

What's on the reno list? Here's a peek:
- A second story
- Three additional bedrooms and bathrooms
- An upstairs laundry room
- A more open main floor floorplan
- One less bedroom on the main floor (hey, the stairs have to go somewhere!) but also...
- An actual dining room

It's so exciting, and we can hardly believe it's finally underway!