For all of you who have been checking this, I'm playing around with changing formats. Please see our new site:

http://wblqueen.wordpress.com

I'll try to keep posts going on both sites, but as of right now I'm planning on trying out Wordpress. I think you'll like some of the changes I've made on the new site. Let me know what you think!

I'm working on some new templates and improvements for the blog - so I apologize for a few missing/bad links and confusing changes in the coming weeks. Hopefully I'll have all the changes made and the kinks worked out by the new year!

Thanks for your patience,

Dave

I'm going to try and insert some photos I took of our blueprints for all of you. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see them or not, but this is the best I can do right now. The floor plans are fairly accurate as to how things will actually be. However, there will be a couple changes with the master bathroom as well as the laundry/mudroom downstairs. The last picture is a cut-away that shows how the new addition will connect with the existing house. It's actually going to be a pretty cool room. We're excited about the potential for it being really unique.





















If you'd like to compare the new plans to the old ones, you can find the old layouts here:

1st Floor
2nd Floor

Last, but not least, here are the elevation drawings of the addition. Because this is a National Historic Register house, there are nine special conditions we have to deal with as we build this addition. Because it must be differentiated, we're trying to make it look like a carriage house:

Nate posted some great questions that I'll try to answer quickly here!

1. What are we going to do with the exterior?
   
   That's a great question! I'd actually like to toss that one out to all of our readers for input. I'm going to make a poll that you can access and give us your input. We're really struggling with this. Ideally, I'd like to strip off all the paint and return it to the original brick color, which you can see HERE. There are actually two bands of limestone or sandstone detailing that run around the building just below the windows. I think it would be gorgeous to get that back to it's original state with white windows and some other accent color for the trim work as well as the Victorian gingerbread features on the exterior. However, what's the best way to do that? I've heard over and over that sand or media blasting just destroys the integrity of the brick, so I want to stay away from that. The best fix seems to be a product called Peel Away. I'm not sure how long that would take or how expensive it would be, but I'm guessing that project would take REALLY long compared to just giving the house a facelift with new paint colors. The new addition will certainly be painted (Hardy-siding), but it will be a different color than the house and it'd be fun to have it stand out from the brick! So that's the dilemma: repaint or Pell Away?
   
   
2. What colors have we been considering?
   
   I think that we will repaint in a clay red color. And perhaps do the addition in some earthy brown-tone. We like rich colors, so I could see doing some regal Victorian colors that would accent the brick red - like purples or greens to go along with the white window trim. I think that we will probably try to use the red color of the house as an accent color to the brown on the garage addition. But we're still discussing this with our designer - so I'll let you know what we decide when we get there!
   
   
3. Are we going to replace the missing turret?
   
   In short - not a chance. Frankly, it was really ugly! I'll try to find a picture of it so you can see it... but it just didn't do anything for the house and didn't serve any useful function as living space, either. However, we ARE going to replace the missing dormer/gable on the South face of the house above the front porch. It got blown off in the same tornado and I think it'll really help balance out the house. It'll be designed to look like THIS window on the East face of the home: The only difference will be that it will go all the way up to the 3rd story roof, allowing for a small walk-out porch off of the attic space that we plan to renovate. It will be a great place to hang out and enjoy the view of White Bear Lake, which is less than one block away from that face of the house! The house was originally situated so that the South and East sides both had spectacular views of the lake. The property was parceled and sold to developers who built between the lake and the house, so the view is slightly obstructed by newer homes and some trees now. It's still a great view, though!
   
   

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!

I FINALLY have something to report. We've actually got some progress! It's been months since anything of note has happened on our project. I've been out of town for several weeks in a row and unable to work on the house, our architect has been diligently (but slower than hoped) working on plans for the addition and existing house, and we've been just killing ourselves in the last week getting permits approved. But they are approved (by a miracle) and we're finally moving forward! We have a big hole in our yard and footings poured on the addition. Here are some pics:

And they didn't waste any time after getting the footings done. The next day they were on site forming up the frost walls of the foundation:

I'm going to get back online a bit later and try to upload some pics of our garage addition floor plans and share a little bit about how this whole saga has played out over the past week as we finally got some motion!

I know, I know...

It's been a month and i haven't made a single post. Truth is I couldn't bring myself to make a post because absolutely nothing tangible has been accomplished. We've been busy working on the plans for our garage addition as well as the interior remodel. We've been back and forth, and back again. Sometimes it seems like we're just spinning our wheels, but each time we go back around we come up with a better plan.

We are getting very close to having finalized plans. I think that the garage addition will be completely finished and ready for permit approval this week. Hopefully we'll be able to say the same about the interior by the end of this week.

I've been thinking about what i could write about - and I thought i'd throw it out there to anyone reading the blog. Here's what I'd like to do:

• - Ask me a question you're wondering about our project.

• - I'll respond as thoroughly as i can to your question and elaborate on it when appropriate.

Let's see how it goes!

Looking forward to your questions...

Dave