Insanity continues to ensue. Last Saturday, January 13th, we had torrential rainstorms here in our part of Texas. As a result, the game room at my house flooded. Yep, that's right... Water coursed in, under the walls and soaked my rugs. Luckily, my antique desk, the computer tower and hubby's big screen TV were all spared.

Hubby and I had been planning to renovate the game room and make it nicer, and in fact had planned to start that weekend, but not now. The game room had, at one time, actually been a covered porch that ran the entire length of the back of our house. At some point, a previous owner decided to enclose the porch. It was obvious that they hadn't done the best job, which is why Hubby and I were planning to renovate. But, after the flood waters receded, Hubby started cutting away at the lower walls to determine the extent of the water damage. That was when he discovered just how badly the job had been done. He also found evidence of another, previous flood, and that a section near the back door was rotted out.

"We should just tear it down and expand into the garage," Hubby said after spending some quality time with a saw and a prybar on the gameroom drywall. "It's going to cost us more to fix it than it's worth."

"Are you serious?" I asked. "Can we please do that?" I suddenly had visions of the gameroom replaced by a large, covered porch that ran the length of the back of the house. Posts covered in climbing, flowering vines. My lemon tree nested among potted ferns. A large rattan sette covered with pillows and my outdoor dining table and chairs suddenly having a proper home.

So, we are going to do it. We looked at the garage and consulted Brother in Law, who worked for his dad, a general contractor, for many years. The garage needs to have some concrete poured to raise the foundation to the level of the rest of the house, and we need to install an interior wall to partition the laundry area from the new gameroom. We will recycle the windows from the old gameroom and install them in the opening where the garage door is. This will actually work perfectly because the windows from the current gameroom match the windows in the front of the house, so reusing them will create a sense of continuity when the addition is finished. Once the garage is finished, we will need to hire a contractor to cut an entryway into the new gameroom from our living room wall.

Once that is finished and the furniture is out of the old gameroom, the fun will really begin. We will have to install posts and lintels to support the existing roof, and once that's done, it's time to knock down the walls! I've promised Boy that he can wield a sledgehammer on this project. He is genuinely excited.

Finally, I will have the back porch I've always wanted. And it just took a flood to get there.