You hopefully saw the pics of the progress on our addition in the previous post. If not, check it out!

It was quite a process getting to where we are. I was out of town for 12 straight days prior to us getting this going. We had finally received the blueprints from our architect just before I left to give to the city for approval. I was really hoping that the plans would get approved quickly and they would have started on the project by the time I returned. Of course, that was not to be. Turns out that any time you are building a secondary garage structure in downtown White Bear Lake, you need to get an administrative variance from all your surrounding neighbors. And this ended up being more complicated that we expected.

I'm not totally sure why, but a couple of the neighbors had a difficult time understanding why we wanted/needed this addition. It may have been because each of them had to have a hearing when they did projects for their own homes. Or perhaps it was b/c the people who lived in the house previous to us were so beloved by the town and it's just hard to see us making changes to the home. Whatever the reason, it was a bit of a challenge to get all the signatures we needed. Jules did a great job of building support with a couple of the neighbors that we hadn't met yet. She is so sweet... I can't imagine anyone saying no to her when she pours on the charm! (I know I sure have a tough time!!!) Once Jules explained why we were asking to do this project, people seemed to come around and be open to the idea. I honestly can't imagine why not - b/c it's going to be a beautiful addition and I think it will do nothing but raise the character and value of other houses in the area. We sure didn't go bottom rung with the design. We probably could've done the project for less than 1/2 of what it will cost us. But we wanted to do it the right way!

We got the last signature (with the great help of our neighbors for which we were very thankful!) on the day before we were supposed to break ground: the day before Thanksgiving. It took me some time last week to go around and meet with people, discuss the project and try to push it through the city's red tape. One of the planners, Sam, was REALLY helpful in pushing it through. I'm not sure it would've gotten done on time without her.

But in the end, we had a variance signed by all 5 neighbors that would be affected by the work as well as an approved permit! This week we should receive the final floor plans for the existing house. We're meeting with our architect, designer and cabinet maker this week to finalize things and get the drawings completed. I keep on teasing you with promises of floor plans, but each time I do they end up changing or I don't get them from the architect on time. So hopefully this time it won't be a tease. I want to show everyone what we are up to!