Step by Step by Step

And here we goooooooooo. Living by the sea has been a dream for so many years I can't count. Well, I could count but I won't because counting gives me a headache. Anything to do with math gives me a headache. That's why you will not EVER have to be subjected to any math on this blog. Heck, I'd read a blog just for that promise alone.

It's been a dream for years and years. It's been a possibility for several years and a reality for the past three and a half years. (This is not math. I repeat, NOT math.) These are just frames of reference for you dear reader, and for me, to chronicle my story. We purchased, well we got a mortgage on, a little cottage, in a beautiful, idyllic, family oriented community by the sea. Everything was perfect! Until...

My dear husband got to walking around the cottage with his finger tapping his chin, forehead bearing creases of consternation, and quietly but seriously exclaiming that, it could use a little of this and a little of that and if we took out this wall and changed that stone and removed the deck, and tore down such and such, and added this over here... Well, you get the picture.

So, we planned, and schemed and dreamed. How could we possibly go about implementing and turning our dreams for our cottage into reality? Then the economy took a downturn. We, being the optimists that we are, plunged forward on a budget. We traded trades, we got free advise, we used everybody's talents who would share them and we visited the building department. Scary. The BUILDING DEPARTMENT. Those guys hold your life in their hands. They can make you or break you. They can shatter your dreams in an instant. They cannot be bribed with my infamous Mango Salsa.

About this time, the laws in this town, they were a changin'. Some people wanted all building of homes on lots of a certain size to cease. It seemed to us, these were the same people who had already finished their remodels. These people thought that a sleepy beach town should be kept as it was when most of the houses were built originally in the 1940's. Our house in particular dates back to 1953. You get the picture. Teeny, tiny, closets. Rooms all chopped up with a kitchen for the "little lady" all tucked in to its own corner way over on the other side of the house. Stairs leading to the bottom story of the house, on the OUTSIDE of the house. No linen closet, no broom closet. NO PANTRY! Now let me interject here. I'm all for keeping it simple. Keeping it earthy and clean and leaving the integrity intact. BUT, I am also really, really, into keeping it real. I still had 4 of my 5 kids at home. I had a husband who walked tapping his chin, forehead bearing creases of consternation for GOODNESS sakes.

What were we to do? I'll tell ya what we did. We ran speedy quick to the building department and filed for a permit for our plans just one day before the vote was passed. They left a tiny bit of lee-way for those of us wishing to remodel but, not enough for us to make it worth while if our plans didn't go through BEFORE the vote. Guess what? We did it. We got those plans in there the day before which, my husband said groaning and nodding his head, all happened due to his talent for procrastination.  Oh. That's what that was. Whatever. It all lead us to the point we are at today. So, the adventure begins and I will tell you all about that the next time I see you here. Until then,


Blessings,


 Tia