Post One

A lot of people have asked about the progress on our addition.  So here it goes.  But to back up a bit, let's go to the beginning for those of you that are new to this.  I am an architect living on Mt. Desert Island and working in Blue Hill, Maine.  I live in a one bedroom one bathroom house that looks like this:

It is in the middle of the woods, very secluded, and very bright (light is a commodity in Maine after all).  I live here with my cat Ramona.  In December I proposed to my girlfriend Susy and for some reason she said yes.  Well first she cried, which made me a little nervous, then she accepted.  And she has two kids: Valerie who is 18 and a senior in high school, and Victoria who is 13 and in 8th grade.  They are both on volleyball teams I coach; Valerie is on the varsity team at the high school and Victoria is on my 14's club team.  They are great (most of the time) but the problem that became apparent after the proposal was that my house is a little too small for all of us.  To make matters worse, and against my objections, in March we adopted a Corgi pup named Marlowe.  She is a little beast, but very cute so she gets away with more than she should.  And 750 square feet that once felt like the perfect size suddenly needed an upgrade.  And fast.  So I began work on a design for an addition.  With Susy one night I basically sketched out a floor plan that is pretty close to what we are building now.  I quickly drew up plans and then went to the bank to discuss getting a loan.  Fast forward many months of delays, bank requests, etc., and finally we were approved.  And so at the end of August the land was cleared and foundation work is now underway.  I wish I had taken pictures before it was cleared but so it goes.  Footings are being poured today.  Below are some plans and images of the proposed design.

As you can see the addition is larger than the existing house by about a third.  It will add three bedrooms and two baths.  There is also a mudroom and laundry room as well.  The addition will be connected to the present house via a bridge that will establish a new entrance.  We will then turn the current bedroom into the living room.  Now here's the trick: we only have $160 a square foot to build this thing.  That's where things get interesting.  Anyone will tell you that it's hard to build a house on the island for that amount of money; I know, this is what I do.  So we have to be careful and clever.  We will also need to put a lot of sweat equity into this.  When I say we I mostly mean me.  But more on that later.  In the meantime, here are some shots of the footing work that is underway as I type.  I'll try and update this regularly and as milestones occur.  We're hoping to move in at the end of May so we have a lot of work to do!  And we will need a lot of help.