It has been a good week. The Brothers Cipriano, general contractors extraordinaire are tearing our upstairs apart…and I couldn’t be happier. We are in the process of adding a shed dormer to the back side of our steep pitched Cape Cod style house. We’re turning two large bedrooms and a more or less useless, but sizable top-of-the-stairs landing into a space with one large master bedroom (with big closets!) and three smaller bedrooms for the three kids (well, two kids and soon to be born number three). And don’t forget the linen closet. Oh yeah baby, we’re getting a linen closet.

How did this happen? Well…funny story. Actually, not so funny, but it’s interesting nonetheless. We have always talked about maybe someday adding a dormer. I had even done some measuring and messing around with floor plans to see if we could reasonably get three little rooms upstairs. But I don’t think either of us thought we’d do it any time soon. But home equity line rates are low, and even though Chase screwed us, we went to the glorious local Rondout Savings Bank and scored a sweet line.

Hey, money is pretty damn cheap these days, and people need work. So, check it out. We’re stimulating the economy people. Props for stimulation! Plus, we’re going to have more space and more storage.

And now we have a big hole in the wall. It’s the hole that will soon hold one of the windows in Noah’s future room. Right now, though, it is the opening through which the brothers hurl ripped out drywall and 2x4s. It is also the opening through which I coerce my wife to take pictures of me because I think it looks really cool to be standing and looking out a big hole in the side of the house.

Still, how did this come to pass? Well, simple. Carol writes for a local paper. She has done stories on several local businesses. She actually did two stories about the Cipriano family. One about Mom, who does interior design and similar stuff. The second was about the brothers, who are experienced local contractors who do jobs of all sizes, including custom home builds. They started out with their Dad and have been on their own for many years.

When I knew Carol was going to do a piece on a couple contractors, I suggested she mention our little potential job just to see what they might say. Right away they started talking about possibilities and she just got a good feeling. So I called them a few days later and they stopped by. We walked the house and talked about possibilities, and it just took flight from there. Yeah, I know they always say background check your contractors and get multiple estimates and such, but, well hell. We both got a good vibe, and let’s face it…Carol met their Mom. And Mom clearly liked her. Isn’t that enough. 

Oh, and did I mention they’re awesome. They’re nice guys who do great work. And they work hard. and check this – because they know we have a little one coming in a couple of weeks, and because they want to minimize the difficulties of having a house with big holes in it, they are going to be working this weekend. Yup, they’ll be here at 7:30 tomorrow (Saturday!) morning to meet the materials delivery and start framing the upstairs (which is now fully stripped and ready to rock).

Dude, I’m psyched. More to come…