I am so excited for you! I remember a few years ago when this project was conceived but there was the prob with the contractor -- a relative or friend-of-a-friend, right? I haven't been here much so I don't know what your new plans are, but I really look forward to seeing your progress. Congratulations!

Congrats dianalo! It IS so exciting to finally get started. We are on Day 5 (days off for Tday last week...) and still in demo phase. Just kitchen remodel (no external work) but it is so fantastic to finally be underway:) Keep us updated and enjoy the progress!!!

Snow? Where's the snow? And the slop? and the mud? You must think you're going to still eat at that outdoors table, you're so confident, breaking ground just at the start of December. Where do you live anyway?

Congratulations! I'm so excited for you! And so happy that you'll still have use of your kitchen for Christmas & New Years! If your DH & boys are anything like mine, food at the holidays is VERY important! :) I hope the addition work will be as unobtrusive as you've been told. Post progress pics, please!

That is frost on the grass in the first shot. About a half hour later it was still cool but I was able to hang out and watch demo in a long sleeve shirt without freezing.
We are on LI, east of NYC and west of the Hamptons.
It is definitely not the ideal time to do this, but our moronic architect and the ridiculous town combined to cause more delays than I can even remember. We got the project back on the table in July and yet here we are breaking ground in almost Dec. We had the variance issued 3 years ago, but foolishly, let it lapse last Aug. We had hoped to extend it and pay a fine, but the new regime in the town will not deviate from the any rule no matter how minute.
It costs $175 to extend and since I knew we'd be downsizing the plan (actually, not smaller, just less "grand"), I made the huge mistake of thinking it would be no big deal to get a variance again. I thought we were still over 2 years away. The storm that hit us in March hit hard and we luckily got a nice insurance check out of it. That made it necessary to do the roof, soffits and gutters before winter, and made us do one last try at our plan before re-doing the roof & etc as it currently is.

Dh's cousin, the commercial contractor, is the one who led us astray 3 years ago by not giving us an updated estimate until after the variance was gotten and then being $120k over budget. Considering we were supplying all interior fixtures and even having the kitchen installed by others, it is virtually impossible to be that far off course by accident. I don't know how he thought we'd just come up with the difference, but he thought wrong! We are now proceeding at $80k less than his last estimate and that is with only taking off a decorative front porch and removing some skylights (using larger ones instead of many smaller ones)and a second french door from the plan. I still want to wring his neck for wasting our time and money. It cost $1,750 for his buddy, the incompetent architect, to re-draw our plans, not to mention all the fees we paid to keep the variance alive before giving up on it. The stress he caused was incalculable.

I am so thrilled to be in progress finally. In fact, I think we will name our house "Casa Finally" because this has been a long road to get here. When I think of how we had the architect here to draw plans the first day we moved in, in order to get it going asap, and now it is 4 years and 2 months later that we are starting, it boggles my mind how I did not kill or even assault anyone along the way, lol.

Congrats!! I've read many of your posts and am very excited that you are underway. I cannot wait to see the progress!

Congratulations! How exciting. May your renovation journey be a smooth and happy one. You've already gone through a lot of stress, you deserve everything to go your way now.

That's too cool! Love the shots of the BIG machines actually starting the project! Our house rebuild sounds like yours, and finally got through the city, so I'm with you! I went through compromise after compromise just to NOT have to get a variance! Congrats again!

I still keep peeking out the door when I pass the back of my house. I felt like we were perpetually about to start, so to actually start is a big deal.

juniork - we had no choice but to get a variance because our builder put the house less than 5 feet from the property line so anything on this non-bedroom side of our house will need a variance. He did that to every house in our area in 1950, so we all have this issue. Even if we had gone up over our existing space, that part would have been too close to the line. Our other side has loads of space and is on a corner, so if our house were a mirror image, we would not have needed the variance. The rules are all so quirky. On the other side, the survey showed our chain link fence was 1" over the property line, yet still on our side of the sidewalk, so we had to tear out a perfectly good fence on that side in order to get the variance. All over a 3 tall foot chain link fence that had been here for decades! We did plan to replace it after the work was done, but it would have been nice to do it on our timetable instead. Dh had to clear a lot of bushes and vegetation to get the fence out, so our backyard feels very naked.
I felt so guilty today that our sons did not get to stay and see the process, esp the big machines. They have half days the rest of the week due to parent/teacher conferences, so they will see some more work done tomorrow.
This all got done so fast today. I wish every day showed such tangible progress ;)

I am expecting it not to go smoothly, so that I can be pleasantly surprised and not disappointed by expecting too much. It just is so complicated with many different aspects that I am glad I have a GC to get us through it all. My mind is fried with all the details to have gotten to this point. I can't imagine being even more involved than my total immersion to this point!

It's so exciting to have dirt being pushed around the yard!

When our addition/reno started, I remember thinking "It's actually happening finally." Later I reached a point, when things were really torn up and irreversible damage had been done to the house and yard, where I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

Thanks for sharing the photos! I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Congratulations!! To me, demo is one of the most exciting parts! Your contractor and his helper look awfully young. ;>D

Good luck! Hope the remodel defies your expectations and does go smoothly (fingers crossed). Looking forward to seeing all your upcoming posts!

dianalo, I'm so happy for you!!! I know the feeling of a long-delayed schedule and unforseen horrible setbacks, too. Here's hoping that you've gotten most of that bad stuff out of the way and that your now-begun reno will go smoothly!!
Stacey

How thrilling!

Calloo callay!

Congrats on starting! I was so excited to see dirt moving around too ---- especially after a long wait. I like your keep expectations low plan.... I am going with the "expect a few bumps in the road" philosophy as well.

Best wishes on your project and Congrats again!

Wow! I'm blown away by all the difficulties you've had so far, just trying to get this project started. I'll be thinking lots of good thoughts for you, in hopes that things will go smoothly from here on out.

WOO HOO!

How exciting! Finally is right! You have been waiting a long time for this moment! Congrats on breaking ground on your addition!

Doncha just LOVE that Bobcat?

My nephew had one on his Christmas list for a long time - and he meant the real thing, not a toy one.

Well... we have hit the first bump in the road and it could be a doozy. When they took off the patio, it exposed the sill plate and it is clear to see that it has rot. They can't tell how far in the rot goes, so there is not way to know how big a problem it is yet. It could be simple, but it could be $25k of damage on the high side.
I am hoping it is more superficial and that this knocks out our mandatory bad news for the project early on. I tried to make the gc promise that this was our quota of bad news and that it was smooth sailing from now on, but he would not bite.
On the slightly bright side, it should help our bsmt to be less damp and if we had waited, it would have been worse, so it is good we found it now rather than later on.
Still.... not great news despite seeing more progress today. They are pouring the concrete into the forms as I type.
Our sons dressed quickly this a.m. and spent their time before school watching the guys work. They get out early today for parent teacher conferences, and will no doubt be watching again this afternoon. I know it will get boring to them at some point, but they are so into it for now.
BTW - the blonde one is actually the younger brother by a year and a half. He is one very large puppy and has been larger than his older bro for approx 3 years already.

Thanks to all for the well wishes. I think we will need all the prayers we can get, lol!

lol, east of nyc and west of the hamptons is quite the range! i grew up on the north fork and have a brother still in riverhead. i cannot believe the difference in traffic since i left 30 years ago!!
either way, congratulations on your good beginnings!