Living in Tyvek Town

All of the siding has been stripped off the house.  The front porch has been demolished.  It's hard to break the habit of using the front door, but that won't be a long-term issue!  We are on our second 20 yard dumpster.  The back steps will remain intact until the front porch is built, but those will be updated too.  A new front door is being ordered.  Gray to match the trim seems like a good choice.

The front sidewalk has been removed.  It was in great condition, but it was part of the old stoop that had a side access.  The new porch will face the front of the house and make a nice (and more expensive!) statement.  Adding a porch onto the project was a very costly decision.  Whether the curb appeal will increase sufficiently to justify it is anyone's guess.  However, it should look fantastic.  The old concrete stoop was beginning to crumble.  There was no roof over it, making it unpleasant to enter and exit the house in bad weather.  Rather than go the cheapest route and just build wood over the concrete and not address the exposure to the elements, we went with the architect's vision.  In another year or so, we'll forget about the cost and enjoy living in a house with a beautiful exterior.

Our garden is going to occupy the space which was formerly the sidewalk.  The job is being done by the same guy who has done our landscaping.  He had the forethought not to glue or cement together the wall that had surrounded the garden.  We were also lucky that he had used material that was removed from a prior job -- so he never charged us for the block.  The block will be re-used in the new garden under the windows.

One of the things to think about when the tendency to freak out over the expense of this project, is that we are finding ways to save money without cutting corners.  We are doing an improvement that should add value to the house -- but shouldn't raise the assessment, since adding vinyl siding is considered maintenance, while putting on actual cedar/wood siding would be adding to the assessed value.  It might actually cause the assessment to go down since we removed wood shingle.  That is anyone's guess and has nothing really to do with our choice of materials.

We did learn that some major electrical work is going to be required in order to re-mount the meter to the house.  It's a big chunk to swallow, so we are getting estimates.  It will be possible to buy the materials at cost ourselves, which means finding an electrician willing to work with that.  Many companies make money selling the materials, basing the price on mark-up from the contractor price.  Getting the material at actual cost will save a few dollars, so that is the plan.

This job is not even half way through and will probably take at least another three weeks.  More posts on the progress will follow!