Ugh, difficult time with renovation plans.

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I feel stupid having the contractor come out today with no definite plans for the renovation. And the fact that I was embarrassed about telling him that it wasn't going to happen for a few years didn't help either. But I learned a few things today about renovations that I didn't know before, so that helps. To do the extension for the main floor, we wouldn't be able to keep it on the surface, but would have to dig down 4' and put in a crawlspace. Knowing that fact, I'd be more inclined to do a basement renovation as well. That would make it worth digging the ground out to accommodate it. Then I found out that I'd need to have a structural engineer make the plans for the renovation. Actually, I sort of knew that since the plans would be in the form of blueprints. The city would have to approve of the designs and provide permits, and those would run us about $3,000. To expand the front of the house, the city would have to let us know if we could even do that, based on how much greenery there's supposed to be on the property. So they might not even approve a front of house renovation, and they might not approve an extension on the driveway. But given that the neighbors have done and expansion and have less greenery than we do, we shouldn't have a problem. Since I don't have set plans for this renovation, I can't get a set price for it. But I know how to keep costs lower, and that's to get supplies myself and do some of the work that we're able to do on our own. And there's a bit of that so the cost could come down. The digging we can do, and the demolition of the walls could be done by us. I could haul some of the waste out with my truck, would save on disposal costs since the bins cost upwards of $300/day. One thing I was told, was that 2 of the walls in the house could easily be torn down. Because there's no second floor on the house, these load bearing walls could go. So even if we just take them out for the kitchen, at least there would be more space in the kitchen. So many ideas, now I really have to think about what to do when the time comes. At least the contractor is willing to do the work a few years down the road, and that's a good thing. At least I know someone when that time comes. So it's off to the drawing board, I have to put my thinking cap on and figure this all out.