My wife and I bought a house here in my home town over three years ago.

The original house was built in 1906, with a few subsequent additions in the 70's and 80's. But after moving in, my wife talked about having more children, and she and I agreed that the configuration of the bedrooms wasn't ideal.

So I got out the good ol' fashioned pen, graph paper, and architect's scale, and I designed an addition that would expand the tiny second floor out over the sprawling first floor. There were many structural considerations, such as making sure exterior walls would carry the load all the way to the foundation, placement of beams, and so on.

Back in April we began digging the new foundation for the addition and the attached garage.

My business partner and I were blessed with an entire week without rain, which is nearly unheard of in April. We quickly tore off a huge portion of the attic and began framing two more bedrooms, a huge closet, and a bathroom. Working around 14 hours a day, we were able to get the synthetic roof barrier and Tyvek house wrap installed before rain was back in the forecast. What a relief.

Turning our home into a construction site has been the most stressful thing my family has experienced so far.

Nothing stays clean and there is always dust finding its way everywhere. Carrying bulky tools and materials up a narrow 110-year-old staircase is a chore. And now that I have been back to working on other peoples' projects, I only have evenings and weekends to work on our house, drastically hindering progress.

Fifi loves to watch the progress.

My older boy tries to help daddy out. Bless his little heart.

A tip for anyone finishing drywall -- It sucks. Have beer on hand.

The yard is in horrible neglect. I barely find time to mow, but never get around to taking out weeds or keeping the trees nicely pruned. I gave up on ever keeping my mower tires full of air due to the amount of nails dropped in the yard. And through this process, my wife and I had our second child, so she is busy with the boys.

Almost done.

Moving our son into his new bedroom.

It is extremely frustrating when I think about how many years it will take to have our house finished. I intend to remodel every single room. At least the kitchen is about 95 percent finished. And doing all this work while raising young kids adds a whole element of stress. But I try not to complain TOO MUCH. It will be a beautiful property when it is all done.