Here we go again

I started this blog a little over a year ago to document the changes we were planning to undertake in transforming our house at that time.  After a few years of planning and procrastinating we were ready to take the plunge and finally get to redo-ing the kitchen.

Here's  A Look Back, for those of you who joined us late.

It seemed like things were about to take off.

And they did, only to crash back to earth a short while later.

We managed to get the electrical panel replaced with a larger, more spacious model; one with room to grow.  And we got the new lot survey done and updated, and I brought in my structural engineer to advise me on beam sizes and concrete foundation pile work, and we began to plan in earnest.

I ran my idea for expansion into the existing way too small single car garage past the City Planning official, who seemed to exhibit a bit of a God complex, or he was compensating for some other short-coming, whichever, or both, and I got the distinct impression he wasn't keen on my idea, and without coming out and saying it, hinted strongly at the likelihood of me not gating a variance to convert the garage into living space.

I could park on my driveway as long as it led to a parking space ie, pad or garage.  Except I wanted to convert my garage into the new kitchen space.  If we did that, then the current parking location on the existing driveway would cease to be a driveway (the magic that is city bylaws) and we'd be in violation of the by law because we were now parked in the front yard - even though the cars hadn't moved an inch from where they have always parked.

I didn't want to have to fight that hard to build the kitchen we wanted, and have to go for a variance and then possibly get turned down, or get approved but then be so late into the construction season that we couldn't finish.

So we postponed, and I devoured the by law and found what I needed to get past the hurdle.

If I covered the existing parking space /driveway by building a new garage and still had the minimum required distance from the front of said new garage to the front property line (ie, new driveway) Voila! No more bylaw issues.

Except that would mean building a new double garage in front of the existing single car garage.

Which would also mean covering the existing front entry with the new garage.

So? Build a new entry along with the garage. Simple, right?

Well, sure.  But take a look at the existing house again:

Now picture a new extension in line with the side of the existing garage, coming forward about 20 feet, wide enough to park 2 cars in.  For those of you spatially challenged, that would be about as wide as from the corner of the existing garage over to the siding by the existing entry, and then about 8 feet in front of the existing house.

Here, let me show you:

I also drew in the new entry over on the other side over there.  Yeah, I know it doesn't look like anything. Bite me.  This was a quick sketch to show you where we're headed.  Keep up.

Did I mention my headaches make me snarky?

Maybe just a little.

So, if you've followed along this far, you now see our dilemma.  This is ALOT more involved now than it was a year ago.  This means new foundation work. Which means about 6 or 7 - 20' deep 16" diameter piles and a bunch of conceret grade beams. And a whole lot of roof framing.  I can't just walk outside with my magic yellow line drawing thing and build this addition out there.  Nevermind the interior work - which, realistically? looks like Phase 2 of this project now.  More work, means more budget, and more time.  It also means a redo plan-wise to make sure what looks fairly simple can actually be done.

I have faith I can make it work. It's just construction.  Sure it will be a big upheaval of our lives, and eat up any free time I have, and eat into our Disney vacation plans.

But we can park where we want...