Well, here goes nothing

Hi everyone! As I'm sure you've seen by the lack of posts I've been completely MIA the last year or so. Real estate has been CRAZY busy (which is a blessing) and I've put all of my effort into it. But at the same time, I've done so much work the last few years that I didn't have much else to do, or do I?

Last year I decided I needed to redo the downstairs so the kids could have more room. I wanted to squeeze in an additional bathroom and give them bigger rooms. I decided to convert the lower deck into a room, got quotes, started the loan process and then... nothing. Something didn't feel right and the fact that the loan officer went MIA didn't help much.

Fast forward to this year and the same thought came up. This time was a bit different, though. I had the idea to extend over the side of our driveway. I would tie the addition into the house and it will work beautifully. I thought about making it to where you drive into the garage, but I don't really love that look. So I thought on it some more and thought hmmmmmm I wonder if it could be elevated. So I took to the internet. I found a couple of pics and realized YES! This is what I was looking for.

I thought it would be cool to have this on the side of the home. We could drive under it into the garage AND have space. I contacted my brother (who owns a construction company here in Austin) and once he said it could be done, we started the process again. I called the bank to start the loan process. We were approved and the appraiser was here today. I'm not sure we will get to do everything we want but we should be pretty close. And because that isn't enough....

I decided to change the exterior!!! I met a client at Wolf Ranch in Georgetown and saw this model home from Drees. The second I saw it, I knew it's what I wanted to do to my house.

I already have the limestone exterior... with way too much limestone. It drives me crazy. 

So what am I doing? Well, we are changing out the windows (which is badly needed) and going along these line..

It's super dramatic in photoshop, but I think in person it should be amazing. I'm sure you noticed the windows in the front are going away  - since our house sits below the street, those upper windows are at eye level - NO BUENO! People would drive by and stop in front of our home and look into the windows! I frosted them years ago but hate it. With the new design, the front windows are replaced by a larger door and we will do a privacy window at the top. 

So yeah... huge project on the horizon and lots and lots of updates along the way. EEK!!!! Here we go...