Times They Are 'A Changin'

Our little bungalow is starting to seem a whole lot smaller these days. For Sarah, Gilligan, and me, our little 950 square foot home was perfectly cozy. But the Puleo family is growing - we've got a little boy on the way!

With limited space, our new addition means we need to rethink our house. We tried moving, but the market didn't cooperate. So, we're working with what we've got. The guestroom/office is becoming the nursery. After some work, it will make a great space for baby Puleo. One problem: we won't have any space for guests. So our little addition means we're going to have a little addition.

Let the fun begin!

Room to Grow

When you have a tiny little house on a tiny little lot, there's not a whole lot of room to grow. But with a little one on the way, and with him slated to take up one of our two bedrooms, we really wanted to add some space for guests to stay and for us to have some sort of office.

Growing out was out of the question: we didn't want to lose any of our precious little yard space. Growing up was a possibility, but very expensive. We'd also have to add two rooms upstairs for the net gain of one because a good portion of one of our existing bedrooms would be taken up by a staircase.

The solution? Use the space we already have. Not wanting to relegate guests to the basement, we decided on building a room out onto our porch.

And yes, we hired a contractor. But just for the outside! I'm saving the inside for myself.

Step 1 was to jack up the existing porch roof so new supports, floor, and walls could be added.

Step 1: Jack up the existing roof so that new supports, walls, and flooring could be added.

Step 2: Create chaos.

Step 3 (week 2): Build stuff.