In the early 90s, my parents undertook and completed an ambitious project to expand our home, after owning it for about 20 years. Without adding a third story or encroaching too much on our open yard space, we managed to double the kitchen and expand/renovate several other rooms and the results were really wonderful.<p>However, the process was painful for me as a young adult. I recall first a controversy over whether a professional, licensed architect should be retained, or if the contractor himself should draw up the plans. We were told that architects often had ivory-tower type plans that were impractical, expensive, or needed modifications by the contractor anyway. I can't actually remember which side we came down on.<p>Mom and Dad also permitted me to specify a bunch of elements in my own room, and being a rebellious goth in the throes of PTSD I made some really bad decisions, before permanently moving out two years later. My dad has the room now: it's got pitch-black carpeting with an incense burn in it, the miniblinds are also charcoal black with dark-grey accents in weird middle stripes, and two windows may be cranked open for fresh air, but one is ridiculously narrow, and I suspect that the design intent was "prevent AStonesThrow from jumping out of this one". (Well I did climb out of windows, but more for exploration's sake than self-harm.)<p>The demolition was also mindblowing as I got a taste of just how sturdy our original construction was. It was a tough "chicken-wire" lath embedded in plaster/stucco, and it was a Faraday cage fortress that took weeks to tear down. They replaced it with ordinary gypsum drywall, and I was incredulous about the sheer quality difference, but it was clear that matching the original style would need to be superficial unless we were spending millions of bucks at that point.<p>It really turned out well despite all my efforts at sabotage. I'm not sure about my parents' motivations; I believe it was mostly Mom who received a really awesome modern kitchen, and a modicum of "keeping up with the Joneses" because that decade saw so many of our neighbors adding stories and Granny Flats and renovations, commensurate with rising property values. Yay!