Sneak Peek: Our Homeschool Room Addition

I'm going to tell you right now that this isn't going to be glamorous.  Not Pinterest material.  I'm just going to share what it is because I hope that in the end it's awesome anyway! 

You can see the second "mini-roof" that will extend over the back windows.  (Explained below.)

 I'm not architectural, creative or particularly artistic.  I am also very busy.  I have considered turning our screened porch into living space for many years.  In the northern midwest, the number of months in which you can really make use of a screened porch are limited.  As my children have grown older and just bigger, we really needed to use our basement as a rec room, and not as a school room.  Epecially in the winter.  Well, this summer my baby was over a year-and-a-half years old and I, for the first time ever, not only did not have a new baby in arms, but was not even expecting.

I capitalized upon this by promptly buying a puppy, relandscaping our sorely neglected front yard, and springing for the addition.

I'm going to stop here and explain a little: do you see how the back extends beyond the concrete base?  That's all code.  We popped out the walls as far as we could to maximize the interior space without pouring a new foundation.

The side walls were brought popped out to (not beyond) the foundation.  Apparently this technique is simply "box bay" windows.    Like a bay window, but not--the windows aren't bay windows, but you create that sort of effect by building out around them.  

Here are the four across the back, as you've seen, only two are in so far:

ignore Bilbo, photo bomb

 

Probably the single thing the kids and I are sooo excited about is the window seat they're going to build in one of the "box bays".  This one:

Sorry I'm so bad at capturing and explaining all of this, but you can see where the inside corner is, and how it will "pop out" the amount of space that Bilbo is so conveniently standing in.  That's where a window seat will be, with two windows above it, which are now just cut out.

And then there is the thing my husband is so excited about: skylights!  Just two (I wish we had gone for four, but they're mighty costly), but with only one cut out and put in I can already tell that it lets in a significant amount of light.  And light is at a premium around here.  Especially for my husband from the sunny southwest.  

 And...that's it! (for now)  I'll keep you updated.

Oh, and after all of this?  I found out I'm pregnant!  More on that another post. :)