Here we go, the start of our big addition back in 2007. The next several posts will detail the construction of our 800 square foot living room and master suite addition. The first step was the planning stage which began in the summer of 2006 with all my ideas sketched out on paper. This first photo shows what the house looked like prior to work beginning, the single story room to the left was the existing living room. One issue I had is that the house is in the historic district and requires approval for any alterations. The historic commission in Farmington was very helpful and actually helped me with the design. I purchased the Punch software that you see above and was able to see the design take shape while being able to provide the commission with detailed drawings. I would definitely recommend purchasing this software for any larger projects. I was also able to use the drawings to obtain the proper building permits. After securing all the necessary permits and approvals I contacted CBYD(call before you dig) to mark out any underground utilities on the property. I do have a natural gas line running down the street so that was marked out as the only hazard. In the photo above you can see some nice landscaping which was going to be trashed by the excavator, so I called some friends who eagerly came over and dug them up for their yards. Just a little gift on my part. I took a couple sections of fence down and then it was time for demo. I pretty much tore down the single story living room myself over the course of a couple weekends. The only thing I saved was the aluminum siding which I recycled at the end of the project.
Here you can see the current single story addition stripped down to the studs and the footing for the new foundation added. My poor grass!! The old living room was 17X12 and essentially I am going to bump it out 10 more feet with part of it being 18 feet wide. I don't have any photos of it but eventually the roof and three walls of the old room came down. I left the rear wall because it was supporting a screened in porch facing the back yard which you can see in the bottom photo. 
below you can see again the one wall left standing with the new foundation poured. There is also quite a bit of history in this photo with regards to the siding. On the front you can see the white aluminum siding, on side where the old living room was you can see the original wood shiplap siding. This was covered at some point with the tan asphalt brick siding that you see near the peak. It all cam off and resided with new Hardi plank cement siding which you will see in future posts. Notice the pile of aluminum for the scrap yard. I wound up profiting about $400 for all the old siding from the whole house. 
Here is a picture of the floor framing. All of the lumber was purchased from my local 84 LUMBER. They wound up being the cheapest and had free delivery as well as being a good quality wood supplier. Sometimes Lowe's is not the best if you want good straight lumber. I had about $8,000 in lumber for the entire project so cheaper in price is always better. That doorway on the back wall leads to our dining room which we converted into a living room during the construction. It made for tight living quarters for a while. 
You can see some progress now as the structure is being erected. If you click on the photo and zoom in you will see the one foot setback from the old house and the one foot jog in the addition front wall. This was done to break up the front facade and not make the house look so long. It gave me an opportunity to add a gable roof facing the front which you can see in the next post.
