renovation progress

Yesterday marked my first day of "Summer 2011 Staycation" also known as "Mama & JP's Adventure Week" also known as "work on the addition" weekend. Whatever you want to call it, I am just happy to know that: 1. I have a full week of pure Jackson time ahead of me and 2. Dan with the help of some family and friends made a lot of progress on the addition yesterday (in the hot HOT heat I might add).

You can now see the addition taking shape. The first floor (the garage) had been framed up last week and yesterday the guys set all of the floor joices for the second floor (the great room) and put into place the sub-floor and giant beams that go above the garage door.

We are so thankful that my dad, brother Jordan, father-in-law and a family friend/our contractor were all on board to help. Dan and I made the decision a long time ago that we would hire out 95% of this work- one because we just don't have the time to do it with both working full-time, having a toddler and another baby on the way, but also because with having so much family close by we didn't want anyone to ever feel like they needed to come and help, giving up their own valuable personal family time. So, instances such as yesterday will be purposefully rare which makes us all the more grateful for the support. 

When Jackson woke up he could already hear the work going on outside, so he pushed his chair to the window and when he realized that not only was Daddy working, but also Poppy, Papaw and Jordan he almost went crazy asking to go "out-sigh"... but the poor guy just had to watch from inside because honestly the heat was way too much for him to handle. He handled it like a champ and rarely left the chair watching them work throughout the day. 

A view of our new garage. Dan did a great job of designing it so that the ceilings are quite high for a garage, making it feel spacious and open. The line of windows along the side are more for the visual appeal from the outside since almost the entire wall of the great room will be windows spanning the three floors (garage to second floor). I think that eventually when the kids are older we may turn this garage into a rec room for our pool table and build a new garage separately from the house.

One of my absolute favorite things about our house is that when you're inside you almost feel as if you're in a tree house from many of the rooms. It makes for beautiful, peaceful views year round. 

And of course we couldn't forget about our other little helper, Audrey Danielle who I am now 24 weeks along with. Audrey: your arrival is the deadline for this project, lets all hope we can make that happen!