Like a lot of Americans I have had to make some significant adjustments in my life as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and the five year recession that followed. When my 401k became a 201k, it became obvious that I could no longer afford to live in the place that I had called home for 17 years.
Fortunately, I had a path to recover from this very tough recession and eventually regain what I was about to lose. Years before I had acquired six single family houses as rental properties. Over the years I have become fairly skilled in remodeling, having done major remodels on three of these properties. I sold my house in 2010 and moved into one of my rental properties, with the idea of doing a major remodel of the house to re-create a smaller version of the custom home that I had to give up. This would require me to live in the house while I gutted it and re-built it; something akin to indoor camping.
What follows is an account of the design and implementation of that endeavor.