This week, excavation started on putting an addition on the Doll House. We don’t talk much about our blog’s namesake on here, but we definitely live it! 950 square feet has been cozy from the time we moved in. Then we added a new family member, and our three older boys rapidly went from preschooler and toddlers to kids. ‘Cozy’ is no longer an apt description. “Sardine-like” or “Bursting at the seams” are more appropriate. Keep in mind this isn’t just the house we live in – we also manage a homeschool and a mini-farm out of it. Things are tight! It definitely is time to push out the back. To be certain, we’ll still be living in a relatively small house all things considered. We just MAY tip the scales to average sized with this project, although with 6 people the ‘Doll House’ moniker will still be appropriate.

We’ve been waiting through the (very, very long) winter for this to come, and now that it’s here I can hardly believe it – most of it has seemed pretty surreal. The excavator showed up at 8 am Wednesday. We had been working on some of our reading when Luke let out a whoop to let everyone know “IT’S HERE! THE ESS-CAVATOR IS HERE!” Which was then followed by cheering and screaming to match the volume and caliber of a home-run game-winning hit at the bottom of the ninth. Out into the yard everyone piled, and school was entirely a lost cause.

This is a 12-16 week project, so this is just the beginning of a long journey. We anticipate being ready to live in our new space sometime around Labor Day, just as we’re getting ready to hunker down for another fall and winter. Hopefully a winter in which four rowdy boys won’t be quite as overwhelming as they are in our current living space! Wish us luck and pray for us as we get smaller before we get bigger. We’ve got a long (but exciting!) summer ahead of us!