How exciting! The girls will think they have their own hotel suite when they visit.

OH Loretta How Exciting!!! And you have been keeping this all to yourself?? Shame. But so fun to already see the progress so fast. I think this is going to be wonderful. It is not all that far to the full bath when tub is needed and I can just see the girls bundled up scurrying in jammies to their room at bed time. What a wonderful space you are creating.

I bet that was stressful having the side of your house ripped off. All the noise and just the thought of it. Love you are tying in the look of the foundation to the house.

Amazing you have lived there for 40 years. I think you deserve to do what you choose to your house.

I almost had heart failure reading they tore off your porch! and the LO said 'entry' on it! I thought you lost your lovely new front area.

I can see now where it is coming off at your kitchen ext door. This is very exciting - and will add to the value of your home for sure - plus livability. ya need room for the gkids when they come to stay!

I thought I would get all of the boring stuff out of the way before I posted it. I know most of you can understand that the thought of spending the money for a 'want' instead of a 'need' had me concerned since I'm retired. But in the end I could not get it out of my mind, so I said "what the heck, you only live once."

I stressed out over this small project, so I cannot even imagine a project the size of Jay's and LLs.

I'll post some more pics when something interesting happens - like wood being nailed!

yes, totally understand the spending on a want vs a need. In this case tho I think it's a wise move. It isn't frivolous. As long as it doesn't crimp you too much financially.

As for small projects vs larger ones - I agree. Just redoing a few things in the new place and trying to move over there has done me in and has me frazzled. That's why I've put off redoing any kitchen cabs. Not sure I'll survive the move, so what good would new cabs even do me then? If I ever GET moved over there I plan to take about a yr to do a few minor projects and go thru things very closely and organize. If i can survive that, then I'll start to think about the kitchen cabs again.

I did find out while cleaning out a few upper shelves that the uppers are in really good shape! No problem with them except the finish, so i don't see any reason to rip those out and put in new/used ones. It'll be a lot less mess if I just stick to the lower ones (change to drawers). That'll be bad enough to do.

The uppers would be a 'want'. The lowers are a 'need'.

I understand the need vs want too, which is why I have so many arguments with dh. lol I want to expand our little bedrooms. But we need to save money toward retirement.

Who drew your plans?

Loretta, you might can put a surface mount BARN DOOR on the bathroom. It would mean the bathroom door could be no more than 30 inches, if the hallway there is 60 inches wide.

But it would prevent problems with another swinging door in the hallway.

I'd not recommend a pocket door for that location because it would be more costly to install and really not be as classy looking as the barn door hardware. If not that, then an inward swinging bifold door would work nicely. You really have enough space for the door to swing IN instead of OUT into the hallway. Swing it IN with the opening side toward the SINK.

In my house at MoccasinLanding, the only bathroom was 5 x 7 and there was room to have the door swing IN, and the sink was in the same spot as yours.

I'm very pleased that you are back and cooking on your new project! Look forward to each step and PICTURES.
:)

Steph, you'll really love having a couple of drawers. All of mine are just 18" wide but they are deep enough to hold the pots I use most. No more searching in the back of the lowers.

Marti, my contractor told me that up until a few years ago you could draw your own plans and submit them to the city. Now you have to have them professionally drawn and then stamped by a PE. Once I told them to go ahead and draw them - I knew that was the moment I was going foward with the project, lol.

ML, I believe I am going to talk to the plumber about the problems/issues of having toilet on an exterior wall. That way we could have more options with the bathroom door. I know people who have plumbing on the exterior wall, so I know it is done. In fact, the plumbing for the kitchen sink is in the exterior wall usually.

The foundation and the stoop are in.

That looks great Loretta. I love those brick steps.

I thought I would post pic of the new room. We're waiting on the final inspection.

It is 12x20. The bedroom is 12x15, the half bath is 5x5 and the entry is 5x7. Eventually I hope to cover the porch, and put the gutters up, but in the meantime we put the old cover back up to keep the rain out. My son will clean it up and spray paint it later.

Standing in kitchen looking into entry with the bathroom straight ahead and the bedroom on the left

New exterior doorway on the right. This opening is 40" wide to allow large items to get in or out more easily. The original exterior door was farther to the left, so we had to move the fridge and 3' of cabinets.

Bedroom with laminate floors and 4 windows. What was I thinking? Curtains are so expensive! But I hate dark rooms................

Bathroom

Bathroom light and fan

It took a crew of 3 workers about 7 weeks to build it.

OH I LOVE IT!!!! Easy for me to say ......Do not worry about the cost of curtains . You do not need to buy them all that often. I even used shower curtain liners for curtains when I was flat out broke and needed a curtain. I sewed a casing at the top with long stitches and hung them with tension rods.. And NOW I use them as an added air space in the winter time to cut down on heating costs. They are almost invisible behind my sheers.

Also loving the run in your entry. Back to our favorite greens again.

Loretta it really is a fantastic space. Congratulations

Lo, it is already gorgeous. How do I love it, let me count the ways.

1. The bath light and fan. Not just any ole light, it is very stylish. Love it.
2. The new back door is classy, it lets in a good deal of light.
3. Four windows in the bedroom? Looks good to me, but I understand what you mean about expense of curtains. However, take a look at PLANTATION SHUTTERS. Ones which let you close the bottoms and leave the tops open. Most places which sell them have standard sizes to fit most standard size windows. OLD windows might require custom built, but not the new-fangled windows. In the long run, the cost might be the same as curtains or drapes, and last forever, and not interfere with changing decor. Mine are the "clear view" style, which have the bars to tilt the blades on the sides not in the middle. Very neat.

4. What is the paint color you are using? It reminds me of MamaGoose's DRIED HYDRANGEA, the softest green ever ... or maybe Shades_of_Idaho's soft green.
5. The sink is a really great space saver style. My DH's daughter has one just like it in their downstairs bath too.

6. I had a similar entry stoop for my back door, and it was always a problem for me because of the "L" of the roofline tending to dump a LOT of water right over the entry. Make sure you get the LARGE GUTTERS, not the small ones, and put the grating over it to keep debris out of the gutters. The debris in the gutter tended to force water back up under my roofing shingles. I changed that setup before I sold MoccasinLanding, and installed a wider deck and moved the doorway over. But when we get rain, it is a LOT of water.

idie - that's an awesome addition! good sized bedroom too. your gd should really enjoy that. she'll have space for all kinds of things - and room to dream!

good that you made the entry area wider - not only for moving things in/out but in case of needing to use a walker or wheel chair.

what kind of toilet is that? I love the skirt look on it - easier to clean.

and the mirror looks like what I'd like in my bathroom. Do you mind sharing where you got it? Was it a chain type store? online? it sure is a better size for over a sink than I have now.

I really do like that sink too. hey, I like it all!

Wow! Loretta it all looks wonderful. I love the bathroom fan light. Do you think your son will want to move into it now? Love those windows and the floor too.

Chris, I've also used the cloth shower curtain liner as a curtain for the window over the shower in my hall bath. They are water repellant and economical.

ML, I love the look of shutters. Seems like I remember seeing one of your photos with them. The good thing is that I can take my time figuring it out,since they don't come to visit much during the school year.

I'm going to get a price for an awning and see if they are better or worse than having a porch roof built. After that is decided, then we'll have the gutters installed (with grates).

The color is from Lowe's and is called RYE Bread (I think). It is one of the colors I have in the living room. It looks sort of tan or beige in daylight and slightly green in lamplight.

Steph, the vanity, sink and mirror came from Home Depot all together. The vanity is only 18" deep. The toilet is an American Standard. I must confess that I only bought it because of the smooth sides. I hate cleaning the sides of a toilet. These should wipe down in a jiffy. It also has a round bowl. My hall toilet has the elongated and there never seems to be enough water surface to me.