BELLINGHAM -- Grueling, challenging, a sacrifice of sanity: This is how husband and wife Cara Piscitello and Jason Williard describe the slow but steady progress toward their dream home.

"It's kind of like indoor camping,” says Piscitello, 30, of life in their semi-finished Bellingham home. "It's not for everyone.”

The couple — both architects — bought their once-small Broadway home two years ago, and started tearing it up for upward and outward expansion. They were only the third owners of the 1924 home, and its structure had remained basically unchanged through those 80-odd years.

"It was a bonus for us,” says Piscitello, who also owns downtown store Design Lab. "No one had put some crazy addition on in the '80s.”

They had a contractor do the heavy demo and construction work, but they kept the rest for themselves. Williard, 29, did the plumbing and electrical, and the couple did the flooring, painting, some demo and building and original designing. They estimate that all their handiwork has saved as much as $50,000.

What they created — and are still creating — is a modern home that still will maintain the historical touches that give the neighborhood character. They've managed to marry the warmth and comfort of the old to the fresh and functional new, with a sleek, cork-floored new kitchen connecting seamlessly to the home's original hardwood living room.

"We thought long and hard when we drew plans,” Piscitello says.

The house became their weekends and their evenings, their holidays and dates during the past two years.

"For us, it's fine. We don't have any kids,” Williard says, "(but) you need some closure, to just come home and sit on your couch, and we haven't had that since last June.”

They estimate it'll be the end of the year before they finish their "shell game” of moving furniture from room to room as each spot is fixed up and finished. But it certainly has come a long way since the project started in June 2006.

Back then, there was one outlet per bedroom, no upstairs, a sagging roof and wiring chewed through by a small family of squirrels.

"Everything was just at the end of its useful life,” Williard says. "(Now) regardless of what the house looks like, it functions in the 21st century. It gets more and more functional every week.”

As the floors go down and the cabinets come up, the couple is inching closer to having a real home that doesn't feel like a campout.

"We want to be done and just be able to enjoy what we're done to the house,” Williard says. "And take a breather.”