This is what my sister and her (ex-)husband did to the house the bought in Nederland, CO:
http://tours.mediamaxphotography.com/public/vtour/display/492697
(I can't post any photos from the listing directly, and I don't have any of my own photos handy.)
They bought it around 2001 as a ratty 400sf house (the front part in the first photo). The did some work on it to make it liveable and then spent some years designing and planning what they wanted to turn it into, then moved into a rented house down the street and did it. They did everything themselves, except for digging and pouring the new foundation. It was the oldest house in town, dating to I think the late 1880s, when Ned was a mining town and it was more of a fancy tent.