Now add in the concept of tax credits. When you restore a home listed in a national historic neighborhood, you are potentially eligible for a credit of 30% of the amount you spend on the original structure. That means additions don't count, but almost anything you do to the existing house does. Like the roof, electrical upgrades, HVAC, plumbing, floors, new kitchen, new bathrooms, lighting, paint...you get the picture. Spend $100,000 and get $30,000 CREDIT on your federal income taxes. Considering we've owed the government for the past several years, this is a big deal to us.
Since tax credits are compiled on a calendar year, the incentive becomes doing everything and anything you may potentially ever want to do to the house RIGHT NOW. So that essentially means that we diverted all resources and funding from the addition to the House once we realized we don't have time to complete both by the end of the year. Addition on hold until we get the energy to restart that process sometime in 2009. In the meantime, we will be able to move into the House sooner and get to enjoy our very large and very expensive new patio. You see, before we all came to this stunning realization we had already removed a room from the back of the House AND had the slab for the addition poured. I think our patio furniture will look stunning there.
You can see all the recent renovation work here, including the blank space that is now our kitchen and one of our bathrooms. I have always wanted to see dirt when I shower. The guys have actually been building things back up this week, so I expect the next set of photos to show the corner we have FINALLY turned. 
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