>>When we started digging the basement, the first daughter was 7, and the second was three. So we figured we'd move in in a couple of years and the girls will have fun in the winter. But then it took us ten years to make the house habitable, and when we moved in the girls were 14, 10 and 1 year old. We lived there only six years, and then moved here.
>
>Ah I see. Almost the Moses of the house builders, aren't you :-)

Any religious connotations are probably wasted on me :). If there's any commandment in it, this could sum it:

- if you start calculating how much will it cost, don't build a house.
- if you start calculating how long will it take, don't build a house.
- if you are not sure you'll like it, don't even start.

But in the end, when you see you've made something so much larger than yourself, you are amazed.