A neighbor mentioned…

A neighbor mentioned recently that it would be strange if the previous owner found this blog, as they'd thought their house was perfect. And we're making all these changes. That makes me a bit sad to think about, but all I can say is that perhaps it was perfect for them, and now, hopefully, it will be perfect for us. I suppose this is how houses evolve over time. With any luck, outliving us all.

Rear view comparison (house's rear, not mine -- mine is much less exciting, I'm afraid). Photos courtesy my architect David Muriello via my GC Pam Whitehead because they are cool that way:

Original (there's nothing but basement below deck level):

Revised:

• the back staircase and old door onto the porch from the second floor (remnants of the two-flat period of house's history, perhaps? we have no earlier photos of the rear, sadly) are gone, as is the single door from what was the previous owners' kitchen (on left), and the window from what was their dining room, I think (on right) -- in general, the windows moved around like crazy in back, though we tried to keep as many original windows on the house as we could

• the large deck is gone; the one shown below is temporary -- it'll actually extend a few more feet to the left, but will still end up about 1/2 the size of the deck pictured above, I think, (and will hopefully be capped with a pergola, if budget permits) -- it's a bit of a shame to lose the big deck, but it meant that we hardly ate into our backyard at all for the rear addition, which is great

• the third floor roof in back is raised (I think 5 ft?) to make room for two kids' rooms up top

• there's a three-story rear addition (ground: mudroom / 1st: eat-in for kitchen / 2nd: master bath)

• there's a roofed door at ground level into the new mudroom (way easier for bringing stuff/kids from car, esp. in icy winter)

• there's a new double sliding door from the family room onto the porch

• newly trimmed out to match front of house -- pretty!

Whee!