Home Plans

I have long known that I am married to the most wonderful man in the world. He's hard-working, loving and a fabulous Daddy. But he has now proved himself to be the kind of man that is near impossible to find, outside of the Mennonite/Amish communities.


You'll notice this eyesore, I mean back part of our house. Once upon a time it was a summer kitchen and shed. Now it's freezer storage/junk room/even junkier junk room. It's also the main entrance to our home. Rather embarrassing to have anyone outside of family come by and see -especially pork or sewing customers. It's starting to fall off the house (good construction I know) and it really bothers/embarrasses Colin, so he's decided to bite the bullet and take it down. It's good timing (sort of) because we are working out the financing to buy this part of the farm from his Dad, so we might as well ask for the extra to put something usable on. Our house is very misleading, it seems a good size when really it's only 2 bedrooms and about 800sq ft.

This is where my Colin really makes me fall in love with him all over again. The addition is going to be big enough that my Mom will come and live with us!!!!! Not too many guys these days want their MIL to move in.

The addition will be a new living/dining room so that more than 3 people can sit down at once (good since Colin's family total 10), a bathroom that is more than 3x5, in fact it will be wheel-chair size just in case Mom's arthritis gets too bad in the way distant future. There will also be 2 good size bedrooms. One for Mom and one for Ella. Ella's current room is so small and if we build her a new room, that means we will, eventually, get a bathroom upstairs. Hurray! Coming from a 2 bath house to this one bath one has been such a change. You don't realize how convenient having a bathroom on the same floor as the bedrooms is until you lose it :) That's one of the reasons I spent the last 2-3 months of my pregnancy sleeping on the chesterfield. I made so many trips each night, Colin was afraid I would fall. With the layout of the addition I get a much bigger kitchen, moving the table to the new part. Also, Momma finally gets a pantry, we'll rip out the old bathroom and put in LOTS of shelves. Ella will get the old living room as a playroom. I'm so happy about that because I'm tired of hearing from the in-laws that she has "so many toys", when really she has very few toys. It just looks like a lot of toys because the living room is so small and it's easy for them to take over. It will make things easier for Ella and Daddy because he can watch his shows in the living room and Ella can play in her playroom and we don't have to have the TV up full blast :[

What does Daddy get for all this? Except the love and admiration of a happy Momma? He gets a "man-cave" in the basement. He'll finally be able to set up his train set and have storage for his telescope. Maybe now he'll use it more since it will be handy. He'll also have somewhere to escape if there gets to be too much "girl" stuff going on. He'll also appreciate the second bathroom, once it gets done.

Now we just have to decide how to do it. We've been looking at modular houses. They really seem like a good way to go. Colin would have a lot of finish work to do, but it would certainly save dollars. We also have a couple of contractors working on prices. At least with modular it would be on site in a day and is built indoors. We also have to work on where the money is going to come from. I trust God, He has always provided for us. I just hope we can do it soon. Mom doesn't need to live with us now, but I would like to see her move in when she's still able to take an active part in Ella's live and enjoy herself; not just move in to be "looked after". Mom has had to struggle and make do for so long, I want to take care of her and have her not have to worry.