making room.

After a year and a half of working hard on our house and yard, we agreed to take 2015 off of major projects. And we did! Well, 2016 couldn’t even begin before David was back to work. Our tree guy and his crew drove a trailer into our yard at 8:30 New Year’s Eve morning, so we celebrated Noah’s third birthday to the tune of saws and crashes and lots of cigarette smoke. The boys were captivated.

Then David and I may or may not have fled left town overnight for a wedding, while his parents stayed with our kids and oversaw the rest of the tree process. Thanks, Steve and Linda!!

If you remember, we’d already removed eight pine trees back in 2014, but before you label us the neighborhood tree killers, please hear me out. Of the three we took out this time around, one was dead and was dangerously close to the play house, one was basically a huge weed, and one (nice big oak, sigh) was smack in the middle of our driveway. We removed the oak to make way for — wait for it — our master bedroom addition!

That’s right, friends! If all goes as planned I will be getting my second bathroom this year! And a new bedroom! And a walk-in closet! Okay, that’s enough exclamation points. But you understand my excitement, right?

We had plans drawn up for a 400 square-foot addition, which will turn our house from a three bedroom/one bathroom into a four bedroom/two bathroom. We’ll grow from 1,500 square feet to 1,900. Judah and Amie will get their own bedrooms! Hooray! We also plan to do some landscaping in the backyard, so it looks like I’ll have some good motivation this year to be outside more.

I know it’s going to be a lot of work and upheaval, between decision-making and noise and a little DIY and a period of time having a hole in our house, but I just think about extra space and a second bathroom and I feel like we can get through anything. I warned our sweet next-door neighbor about the coming craziness and she said, “You can do anything you want to your house as long as you don’t move!” We love our neighbors and hope they still love us after the commotion.

Thank you, Steve and David, for spending your New Year’s Day moving logs to the backyard for firewood. The kids love exploring the wood piles and getting covered in wood-shavings and sap, and Judah and Amie announced, “We’re survivors of the wild!” We ended out New Year’s Face-timing our Pennsylvania family, eating one last chocolate pecan pie, and setting off some fireworks. Perfect. Bring on the house project!