Look what's happening at our house...

Well, because you're not a Patterson until you've lived through major construction in your first year of life, we've decided to build a new garage.

People think I'm crazy, asking how I can have a newborn baby and be doing a major project at the same time.  My answer: This project is outside.  Plus, this is how we Pattersons roll.  (Cue up Montell Jordan's, "This Is How We Do It".)

Of course it's been a process.  Aside from the architectural drawings we needed approval from the Historic Preservation Commission again.  And then there were a few modifications.  And then we had to lose a huge tree because, after consulting with an arborist to make sure we weren't going to kill the tree by building too close to the root structure, we discovered that the tree was in distress and needed to come down.  We knew this was a possibility, but had hoped to save the tree.  The arborist told us that it could probably live a few more years, but then it would definitely need to come down, and it would be much harder then with the new garage.  Plus, we figured with our luck, we'd build the new garage and then we'd have a storm and the darn thing would fall on the new garage.  So, down it came.  The other big tree next to it needed to be pruned, so we did that at the same time, and our yard looks so different.

Then, this Saturday, down came the old garage.  The construction crew took it down by hand in less than five hours.  These guys are awesome.

And now we're left with a clean slate.  Time to rebuild.  We're building a bigger garage, and changing the entrance to the alley side, so we'll gain a lot more yard.  Process should take about 7 weeks, so really baby brother gets off pretty good.  Less than two months, albeit the first two months of his sweet little life.  I'll be sure to post the progress.