After 14 years and 6 months in our home, we are finally starting the remodel. We went back and forth for years: Sell and move or remodel; sell and move or remodel; sell and . . . well, you get the picture. But the clincher was really the fact that we couldn't leave our beautiful garden, with its tomato plant "forest," its herb plantation, its fruit orchard (have you experienced the simple joy of craving some homemade lemonade and then drinking it not five minutes later?).

So now it's T minus 2 days and counting. The back of the house is being torn out beginning 7 a.m. Monday morning. We have spent the last week emptying the room of its furniture, office equipment and china cabinet. The local library has been the lucky (?) recipient of about 150 books and the desktop computer has been banished to the garage.

The "Big Room" - tearing it down on Monday

We're doing our best to
save some of this wonderful wood
from 1940

I'm excited, nervous, inspired and exhausted. Hopefully this blog will give me some perspective on the process, although from the horror stories I've heard, nothing will keep me sane over the next four months. Cross your fingers for me - here we go!