Just gave the go-ahead to our guy. A little jittery, but psyched. Work should start in 4-6 weeks, once permits are taken care of and schedules are ironed out.

Oh boy. This is the biggest thing we've done since buying the house. In a way it's bigger - the house came as-is. Today we bought what will probably turn into a four-month process, with millions of little decisions along the way.

Plenty of people have done this before.

This could be the big day. I think we've finally settled on a contractor.