Here is a picture of the interior of the house facing the back after the first day of renovation. The workers started at 6:30am. I asked for them to start earlier (my neighbor likes to get up early), but they said something about ordinances and politely declined. The framing in the above picture used to be the interior of a wall that separated the living room from the laundry room.

Click here for all the pictures from today

Here we go!

We finally got our permits on Monday, 6/15/2009, after a several-month delay due less than competent performance by a structural engineer (What? I have to prove it works using physics? You won't just take my word for it?).

The demolition started at the back of the house. Above is the before picture.

History

This is an attempt to document the renovation of our 1946 Central Phoenix home. Our subdivision was built as inexpensive housing for GI's returning from WWII. I have been told that they are the first tract-style homes to be built in Phoenix (a dubious distinction if true).

My wife and I purchased this home 10 years ago. It was our first home, and when we decided that we wanted more space, we decided to renovate rather than move, since we love the neighborhood and the neighbors.

This is our story...

Several years ago, we decided we wanted a bigger house. We originally wanted to just add a small master suite above the garage, and met with an architect to design it. After getting preliminary drawings, we decided that if we were going to go through the hassle of doing a renovation, we should probably just list out everything that we wanted in a house and let that guide the project. I wanted a basement. My wife (we'll call her Farrah) wanted a master suite. We went back through the design process and after many iterations ended up with the above floor plans.

The first time we showed the plans to our neighbor (we'll call him Gladys), he called it a monolith and lamented that it would block out the sun. I told him he didn't need sun, he got free tanning at his gym. He hasn't spoken to us much since then (though he did feel free to use the dumpster for his own personal use when it showed up - he'll be getting a bill).