I live in a 100 old house. We moved here 14 years ago in November. My childhood dream has always been to own a big old house and fix it up.

We have progressed through the years doing a project or two a year and have worked our way through the house and now it's time to attack what we call, "the back room".

There is a seventies era addition on the back of the house that has brown paneling and yucky carpeting. We have done nothing to this room for fourteen years. It's the yuckiest room in the house and also the room where we spend most of our time.

It's now a priority. We began this process about a year ago. At first we were in denial thinking that we would just remodel the room. Knowing that we might encounter some structural

issues, we began our search for an architect. I am an artist and I know lots of architects so I began with people that I knew from college. I called my friend Mike and told him what we were thinking we wanted to do. After I sent him some pics and said if it's possible we'd like to do x-y and z. In our phone call that followed he asked, " So are you ready to blow open the back of your house?"

"What?" I said, "Oh no, no!" I think I was still in denial about the scope of the job. We talked about the possibility of Mike working on the design but he also gave me some suggestions how to go about the job and he recommended a local fellow classmate in this area who might be able to help. In the end on another friend's recommendation I found an architectural firm in the area that I like. I looked at their website and loved their work immediately.

When I met them, a husband and wife team, I liked them very much. I chose them for several reasons but the most important one was that they seemed like they would have fun with the project and would enjoy the process. That spoke to me because that is how I approach my art and I knew it would be a good fit. We hired them and they took one walk through my house and saw everything that wasn't working. They came back with some plans that more than exceeded my expectations. Of course we chose the one that blows open the back of the house. And that's when it went from a simple room remodel to an architectural intervention. When I told my friends in the field about the plan to knock through the dining room wall. They said, "Of course they are."

Now almost a full year later we begin construction tomorrow. Lots of planning and decisions have already been made. On C2Architecture's recommendation we have chosen a contractor Greensaw Design who specializes in using reclaimed lumber and materials and who have a very thoughtful artistic approach to their work. Again, better than I could have imagined and really fun to work with. We have even bonded over our martial arts training and I will probably be giving them a kettle bell lesson or two at their Friday fight night. The plans have been drawn, some supplies have been ordered and the movers have stored our belongings in their warehouse.