Day 40- 81 Square Feet

So do you remember the Attic Dormer/Birds Nest/Scary Room? Well it was the front A-frame to the house, an unfinished attic space that was kinda creepy and it was behind the little door you see below.

My brilliant idea was to turn it into a toy room for the kids, gut the space, add a window in place of the vent, insulate and drywall. So here it is gutted:
then we added side walls and insulation: Removed the vent, installed a window and drywall and mud:

And here it is primed and ready for some toy niches and a built-in desk space.

This space and the upstairs in general are definitely the biggest transformations to the house. So far I think it is pretty exciting! I added only 81 square feet to my floorplate and I think increased my value by at least $3-5000. Now I call that some bang for you buck! What do you think?

Day 36 & 37- Exterior Facelift

The exterior has definitely gone through some changes. The original plan was to keep the aluminum siding, patch and paint it until I could afford to do something different later. So the exterior would have a new roof, new attic window and be painted...that was the original plan.

Here is the original house...

Here it is with a new roof and carport removed...
Here it is once we realized that we couldn't perfectly match the existing aluminum siding and that I was spending 1/2 the money trying to patch and fix it as I would be just putting all new siding up. Soooo...off came all of the aluminum and the picture below is actually showing all of the original wood siding that was underneath the aluminum siding. It also shows my new attic octagon window and if you can see where the black is on the left that is actually showing the original window placement to the kitchen. If I would have had the money to change my kitchen cabinets I would have tried to put a window back in this location. What I found very interesting is that the house (underneath the wood siding) is covered is 1"x6"s vs. plywood that they use now days. You can see this around the new attic window.

I am thinking my neighbors probably started to wonder what the heck I was doing when they saw the house looking like the above. But once all the wood came off it looked better in Tyvec wrap than it did in aluminum siding if you ask me.

Here is a picture of the old carport and side door in case you forgot what it used to look like...

And here is a picture of the carport gone, side door closed up and new back door opening. Much better right??

New siding is almost done...you will have to stay tuned to see!

The Eagles Nest in the Dormer

So even since December before they flew south for the Winter there were two Sparrows scoping out where they would build a nest in the A-frame attic dormer of the house. There was a hole in the wire mesh screen behind the vent you see below. I should have closed up the hole before Spring but then again I didn't think it would take 3 months to close on this house either! So needless to say the two little sparrows were back trying to build their spring nest before I got the house last week.

Now by the size of the nest you would not think that these were two little sparrows...but more like two Eagles. I stuck my camera inside the dormer a few weeks ago bc I was afraid if I went in there they would poke my eyes out (What? Haven't you see the movie "The Birds"?)

I think their goal was to build the nest up to the vent so they could sit nicely on their eggs while watching the world outside...but holy cow that nest is 30" tall!

So I took the opportunity yesterday with my roofers there to scare them away and finally went in the attic. Their nest had collapsed a bit since the week before and I am thinking that instead of being sad about ruining their home and taking over their month of hard work that I am really helping them realize that maybe with the economy this year that a bird mansion is really not the way to go.
I am still afraid that they might find me and poke my eyes out...but I did have my dad seal up the vent until I get a new window installed. This little attic dormer/Eagles nest area is going to be finished out for a new toy room!