House renovations, stage 0

I've decided it's time to begin chronicalling the impending home improvements here at Phillips-Turner central. If nothing else, I hope this forces me to take pictures along the way, rather than just when it's done or not at all (my usual M.O.). For anyone who doesn't know, we began with grandiose ideas of renovating the kitchen/breakfast nook, the master bath/closet area, the mudporch and garage, and adding on a bedroom over the mudporch. Then we found out how much that would all cost and, combined with the drop in home values and assessing what NEEDED to get done versus what we WANTED, we edited that down to the mudporch, garage, and new room. I'd much rather have started with the kitchen, but our small and now VERY leaky garage made the kitchen a want and the garage a need pretty quickly.

So where are we now, you ask? (If you're still awake.) We found an architect/contractor we like, have finalized the drawings & plans, gotten a solid budget estimate, applied for a cash-0ut refinance through the VA plan (which allows for 100% cash-out, just FYI for any veterans), had the pest inspection done, and the appraiser came by this morning. Estimated start date on tearing up the back yard is mid-June. As you look at the following "before" pictures, please pay special attention to the quantity of kids' toys & bikes on our lawn, thanks to the aforementioned small and leaky garage. They might as well be accessible while being rained on is my feeling.

Basically, the plan is to extend the mudporch (by tearing it down and rebuilding it onto the existing foundation) to about where the width of the sidewalk ends and then attach the new garage to the new mudporch. The back entrance to the house will then be facing the sidewalk. Where the garage is now will be grass that will extend the entire width of the property.

The blue tarp is really just keeping the rain inside the garage to a steady drip rather than a deluge.

Inside the mudporch.

The french doors are going to be removed and that area will be filled in with wall. On the other side is the living room, and my plan is to use the well area from the french doors to do a built-in cabinet that could house a TV or books or whatever. I hope to post the drawings in the near future, and then it might be easier to understand the whole plan.