The Varelas

Our house
I realize I'm going out of order, as I sort of already mentioned the "remodel/addition" below, but I don't think I ever wrote about it. I'm stealing the text below from an e-mail I just wrote to a dear friend (hi Nell!):

We’re thinking about adding on to our house. Currently, it’s a one-story, 2-bedroom, 2-bath place with a teeny kitchen. We’d be adding a second story with 2 bedrooms and a bath. That may include some restructuring of the downstairs to create a little bit larger kitchen and/or dining area, but I don’t know. Our friend Scott and his dad are architects, so Scott came over last week and took measurements of the house so he can draw up some plans. This would be a very smart move for us financially, as having a 4-bed, 3-bath house would mean we could stay/fit in the house a lot longer AND even if it cost us 5 times what we’re thinking our budget will be, it would still be smart because we’d still be paying way less per month than if we sold our house and moved to a 4-bed, 3-bath house in the same area. Home prices are astronomically high here, and though we felt we paid a lot when we bought ours, its value has gone up a lot since we bought it. So that’s our fun news, and I’m really excited about seeing the architectural plans. I do know, though, that doing a major remodel like this effectively takes over your life for 6 months, but now is the time to do it when we don’t have kids.