We all love, well at least I know I do, a good before and after. So I decided to a series of posts of my all time favorite before and after, our river house. It is pretty amazing to see how a little shack became a home. It was a huge undertaking and is something I can’t do in one post. So I thought I would post it in sections so you can really enjoy the transformation. So check back often to see the progress.
Back in August of 2003, my husband and I decided we wanted a family vacation home, not too far from home, but far enough away that it felt like we were away. We found a place on the Colorado river in Arizona, on a lake called Lake Martinez. It was in a quiet cove, away from the busy river, but close enough to have quick access to all the water activities. The location sold us, and even though the house was in clean good shape, it was in need of a major update.
Now remember, this was way before blogging, so I don’t have any great pictures of the before. Below is somewhat a decent picture of the house before. Unfortunately it is taken after we had already started construction, but not too far along.
I never did find out if this was a mobile home or a manufactured home. It was put on this lot back in the 50′s. It was just a flat box sitting on the water, nothing spectacular. Here is the side view on the left side
Lots of pole wires, flat roof and lots of gravel. The other side, the water side, looked like this {again with construction already started}
The back porch was scary.
I didn’t let the small 2 bedroom 1 bath house deter me. I had a vision. I knew I wanted a pitched roof, add another bathroom and a real master bedroom with it’s own bathroom . But we didn’t want to tear it down and start all over, we wanted to start using the river and our new house right away. Not to mention it is really expensive and a super long process to start from scratch. So I worked with my contractor to come up with a solution. And that we did!
Not to bore you with structural details, in a nutshell what we ended up doing is making a box around the house with structural columns to hold the weight of the new roof, new master bedroom and porch areas.
All those big wooden columns hold up the weight. The new master bedroom is on the left.
The water side view
The front door {yeah, I couldn’t wait, and painted it red even before we finished construction}
This is the new master bedroom framed in {we were using that in the wall A/C during construction so that we could still use the house, cause it gets REALLY hot in Arizona}
The back porch side
I don’t want to make this a 300 page post, so tomorow I will show you the finishing details of the outside of the house in part 2. You won’t even recognize it! Here is a sneak peak
See you in Part 2!
PS..After I had just finished typing this post, I saw the news that Bin Laden was dead. I then turned on my tv and proudly watched the President speak to the Untied States of America to confirm he was killed by the Untied States Military. Good things come to those who wait. It was a long wait, but justice has been served. I hope the victims of 911 and their families can find some peace and healing in this historic event. God Bless America.
