And They're Off!

FINALLY.  After many many months, construction on our house has started!

First, the 10 second background.  Tim and I bought a 3-bedroom house in Summit, NJ last June. 

The previous family had lived in the house for almost 60 years, and probably hadn't done any work on it for 40 years.  We envisioned a modest renovation to expand the second floor to include a 4th bedroom and update the kitchen.  Of course, with all renovation projects, we kept finding things we wanted to add on and improve, and before we knew it, our little project (and our budget) was not so little anymore.  And then, as with all construction projects, plans took longer than expected, permits took longer than expected, and we've just been waiting, waiting, waiting.

Last week, we got our permits, and the crews descended on the house on Friday.  They have excavated for the 3-floor addition (which will be an expanded basement, family room and master bedroom) and poured the footings.  Here was the back of the house before:

The structure on the left (the old family room) is completely demolished, as is the sunroom.  Here is what it looks like now:

Here is the size of the back addition and a sense of scale for how deep this hole is.  On the left you can also see a hint of the foundation for the new mudroom:

Our fabulous 50s era kitchen is totally gone.  Before:

Now:

So progress is being made pretty quickly.  But the highlight of my day was fulfilling a lifetime dream of operating construction equipment.  Here I am in the backhoe (with a VERY big grin):

Check that off the bucket list!  Now if only I could get my hands on a wrecking ball..