The journey starts here ...

Years ago, when we bought our current house, we made some choices. The biggest one was selecting a wonderful house that did not have a basement. We knew that would have stipulations on how we would grow with the house over time. But we absolutely love our cul-de-sac, our neighbors and our location. Combined with the current economy, moving has been dismissed as an option.

So now we're building our basement, and you're invited along for the ride.

No, no, no ... we're not digging out a basement under the house. We're adding on ... creating a "wing" if you will. A two-story addition coming off the back of the house. The first floor will be a new "gathering" room. The second floor with have a new bedroom and bath. There will be a new set of stairs to connect the two, and an extension of our breakfast area. We're also ripping up our front porch stoop and replacing it with a true Southern gathering porch.

Why would we do these things? Three primary reasons:

1) We love our home, and we love opening our home to others when we can. We think that God is positioning us to be more active in hosting adult events at our home, such as teaching Intimate Encounters through our church. With adults comes children. Sometimes more kids than adults. And with only one stairwell that lands in the current great room, it makes it tough to have a place for kids to play inside and to come and go outside without interruption.

2) We want to be the home that our pre-teen daughter and her friends want to come and crash at. Watch a movie. Play games. Veda and I both grew up in homes like that.

3) Our oldest is getting to the point where it will be easier on ALL of us if she has her own bathroom. Once she graduates, we'll pass the bath along to the next child.

So, we're in for a fun 3-4 months ahead. Grab a Coke and some popcorn and join in the mayhem. We promise we'll keep it PG.

FRONT ELEVATION

REAR ELEVATION