spring cleaning

I know, I know...it has been a while.  We've been pretty busy these past few months shoveling out of a few blizzards, managing busy work schedules, chasing around and having deep conversations with our two year old and, oh, having baby #2!  Since we're all settled back into our "normal" routine and come out of winter hibernation, I figured I could update the blog again.

As much as I hate cleaning, I love me some spring cleaning!  We can open the windows and let the stale winter air escape...rugs and drapes are hung outside to gain new life...the sun beams into the house to help us find those last traces of dust and cobwebs....

And in order to really let our house air out, we decided to take the roof off.

Yep, we finally got around to that 2nd floor renovation that we have been plotting out since we moved in.  We had hoped to get the construction started (and completed) before baby #2 arrived but we were forced to hold off due to weather, scheduling, and budget issues.  Luckily having two bedrooms on the main floor has given us the space we needed for the first two years in the house.  Since becoming a family of four, the need for the additional space was more apparent than ever!

Our upstairs consists of a full bathroom and two bedrooms.  Despite the generous floor space, the bedrooms were very cramped thanks to the classic roof lines of our cape-style house.

The bathroom had previously been dormered out a bit but it didn't extend all the way to the edge of the house and the ceiling was still pretty low.

In order to maximize the spaces, we are raising the peak of our house by a foot or two.  Raising the peak willl give us almost 8' ceilings in the back have of the upstairs.  Yay for us tall people being able to stand somewhere other than the center of the room without ducking! The full dormer will extend to the back wall of the house giving us about 5 more feet in all rooms.  Here is a sketch to demonstrate the increase in living space that the reno will allow...