Drawing up the plans for the house took a whole year. I tell ya, finding an architect was hard. We interviewed three. One wanted “This Old House” TV show to come out and do the job. He contacted them, but they said they wouldn’t go to Ohio. The weather was too unpredictable with a renovation this big. Tell me about it, they were right about the weather. Some plans were just too crazy. One architect wanted to take the same structure that the barn had and put it in the living room addition. Really? I don’t think so. We told them what we wanted, but I don’t think they were listening, because they came up with some strange plans. Well, one finally listened and came up with what we wanted. But, Hubby did find a few things wrong with the blueprints. The roof pitch was wrong. It did not match the old house. Good thing he found that before things were under construction.
We were making extreme changes to the house, so we had to have the Twinsburg Architectural Review Board accept the plans. I was sort of nervous, because it was a historical site and I wasn’t sure how strict they would be. But Hubby was sure it would pass. Sure, enough it did.
We added a living room to the back of the house. The north side of the house we added a master bath and walk-in closet. The south side of the house we added a garage and a bonus room. The addition walls were SIP panels. They came ready-made to be assembled on site.
SIP panels- A structural insulated panel, or structural insulating panel, is a form of sandwich panel used in the construction industry. SIP is a sandwich structured composite, consisting of an insulating layer of rigid core sandwiched between two layers of structural board, used as a building material. Wikipedia
There were so many things that went wrong that I could list, but it would not be helpful. Writing is relieving my stress, but writing about the issues we dealt with, would only arouse frustration and stress. That is one thing I am trying to avoid.
Most builders are not used to building around an old house. They want to tear the old down and build new. It is extremely difficult, but it can be done. It just takes a good general contractor to be on the watch for all the mistakes. Hubby did just that. It even got to the point that he was overwhelmed. I believe, he thought, I’ll just fix the things myself, once they leave. I see how hard he works and I was not going to let that happen. For some reason, the builders didn’t think the problems were an issue. They thought they were done. I made a few phone calls to some people who were in charge. I also made a long list of all the things that were wrong and confronted the builder about it. Giving him the list and seeing all the problems listed on paper, might have made a statement. I am not an assertive person, but I was so under stress with the builders, that I was not going to be quiet. Guess what? They took notice and fixed all the problems.
Not only did the builders cause problems, but the weather played a huge part in delays. It seemed that when the weather was good the builders were not available. When the weather was bad they were available, but then they couldn’t work, because of the weather. Are you getting my drift? All-in-all when the builders were done, SO WAS I! I never wanted to have anything to do with construction or renovation, ever, ever again! (We weren’t even close to being done. That was just the structure of the house. We still had all the renovations to do inside the house.)
Okay, I am taking a deep breath. I am still trying to be content in my uncontentment. Building the structure of the house was fifteen years ago. Even as I am writing this, my Hubby is renovating another farmhouse, and he also added a kitchen to his business last week. Yes, these are the confessions of a renovation addict ‘s wife.
