Winnetka Colonial Chronicles, Part 6

Happy New Year, friends! We mentioned the under-utilized attic back in Winnetka Colonial Chronicles Part 3, and now it's ready.

One planning principle we try to apply to our work is making better use of a space as we find it; if we can take advantage of existing square feet, then the argument for demolishing the entire home or adding square feet is less compelling. We've seen a range of homes on the North Shore that have existing space ready to be re-purposed, and it's very rewarding to improve them.       

This unfinished attic had a couple advantages before we began working on it. First, it had a full staircase for access, not one of those pull-down step ladders that fold up into the ceiling. Second, we had room to improve it because it ran the full length of the house. Third, it had good ceiling height. We tore off a section of the roof to create a large picture window over the stairwell and solved the ceiling height requirement for stairs.

Framing the attic, formerly used only for storage. We increased the depth of the studs to accept eight inches of closed-cell spray foam insulation. This helps an old house stay warm in the cold months and adds some structural support. We used the stairwell as a natural divider between bedroom or office and flex-space.

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The air-handler is now running efficiently in an enclosed space behind the two short doors, and the stairs are behind the half-wall under the lantern light. The view of the locust tree from the new picture window gives you the feeling of floating among the trees, so we named this attic space "the treehouse." One of our daughters decided it most closely resembles a "fairy castle." Despite my limited experience with fairy castles, I'm okay running with that, too.  

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A view from the stairwell. Structural beams in the ceiling gave us the opportunity to dress them with clear cedar. New windows allow plenty of light into "the treehouse" and a long bench makes for a convenient perch. 

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Installing a window seat in the dormer just seemed like the right thing to do. Also approved by the Fairy Castle Building Authority.

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The adjacent bedroom with closet and new windows. This room is flooded with light for most of the day and has its own reading bench in the dormer.

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The treehouse is complete. It's a good example of "recapturing" existing square feet in a house without the need for a major addition or a major investment in new construction. We will move downstairs in the next update.

We hope you'll find a window seat of your own and let your mind wander in 2017. Cheers!

End of Year Reminders and Thanks

The end-of-year review is here. We like to take a moment and reflect on our work as we remind ourselves of some important lessons, and extend many thanks to our clients in 2016.

Great Clients = Great Results.  Our clients welcome us into their homes. They tolerate the inevitable noise, delays, and disruption. They entrust us with their hard-earned dollars. The inconvenience can be minor or major, but it's there. We don't forget any of that. We strive to deliver great results for our clients, and their word-of-mouth referrals are vital to our business. 

Patience is Rewarded. The pace of our clients' lives often resembles a breathless sprint. But even under the best circumstances, construction resembles a brisk walk with a couple breaks on the park bench. Delays occur, surprises pop up occasionally, clients change their minds, we think of a better solution than we originally proposed, and mistakes are more likely when hurried. Patience with the process and all the people involved is a sanity-saver.

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This first floor renovation has been over a year in the making, and the entire job should have been completed within 6 months. We were second on the scene, after the first firm responsible for completing this project was discharged. Hats off to the clients who kept their cool throughout the entire ordeal.  

Go the Distance. Half-measures are rarely rewarded, and this is no more true than in construction. Time, energy, headache, and money are involved; incomplete fixes are going to lead to more of the same in the future. Consider the example of a new sewer line we had to install in a basement. When the previous home-owners removed a mature tree, they decided to skip the stump-grinder. The tree was gone, but the roots continued to grow over the years. What could have been avoided for $200 years ago is a $2,500 fix today. 

A big thank-you to all of our clients and the numerous people working behind the scenes to ensure we met our client's expectations in 2016. We wish you all great success in 2017. 

Winnetka Colonial Chronicles, Part 5

When we last left the 1925 colonial in Winnetka, the exterior of the house was shaping up and much progress was happening on the interior. We are now ready to take you inside to see one of our hardest-working little rooms, the 2nd floor laundry. One common feature of old homes is that laundry machines are almost always located in the (chilly, dreary) basement. This house was no exception. To accommodate today's lifestyle, we set out to relocate the laundry to the second floor, but we faced one minor challenge. We left ourselves in the planning phase with a whopping 40 square feet and no room for error (gulp).

To start, we have a rectangular space that measures 8 x 5 feet, in the middle of the 2nd floor and at the top of the center stairwell which divides the house in half. A king-size bed is a little bigger than the space we have to work in, so no swing door is possible. We opted for a sliding barn door for space-saving and design purposes. Here's one half of the laundry room:

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Mounting the machines on pedestals offers good ergonomics for loading and unloading the laundry as well as extra storage. A client let us repurpose the mini crystal flushmount on the ceiling when she no longer needed it. It's the perfect size and  a good use of surplus lighting fixtures. Who says your laundry room can't have a little glamour?      

Here's the other half of the laundry room:

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Lower and upper cabinets with a durable quartz top help make this compact laundry room punch above its weight class with regard to elegant storage. Yet another generous client donated the glass door cabinets, and repurposing them here was better than sending them to the landfill.

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The tile is from Akdo, the only splurge in this laundry room. It's porcelain and can take some abuse, but without sacrificing the visual interest. 

Readers of this blog might remember Winnetka Colonial Chronicles Part 3 in which I lovingly restored the old front door to this shining black beauty after many hours of sanding, priming, waiting 24 hours for it to dry, applying the base coat, waiting another 24 hours, sanding again, three coats of oil paint, and so forth until I never wanted to see another door in need of refinishing again. Did I also tell you how many people adored my jet black door? Zero. It was a bitter defeat for high-gloss black door fans everywhere. All three of you.  

Sometimes one door closes and another opens, this time in Dutch oil Tulip Red.

Feast your eyes on the most expensive and labor-intensive door I've ever touched. First black, now fire-engine red. The only way to rationalize this sort of (mis)adventure is to say "art before commerce" and find an adult beverage. Or six.  

High gloss oil paint is bananas. A total pain in the neck to work with when compared to latex paints, but the depth of color and sheen is unbeatable. It's mounted. I'm not refinishing it a third time. So there.

We're heading into the home stretch on this project, and we'll follow up with the next installment of Winnetka Colonial Chronicles in 2017. In the meantime, we hope you all enjoy the holidays this month! 

Let's Not Screw This Up, Shall We?

There are plenty of instances when we smash some living spaces before we reassemble them, and truth be told, they had it coming. It was just a matter of time, and time has ravaged these homes. No tears. Nothing to preserve. There's too much to do. You look at what's possible, make sure your tetanus shots are up to date, and get to work.

And then there are some truly beautiful homes in need of a few updates. It's gratifying to work on these, but a different mindset is required. It's the difference between "brace yourself for impact" and "let's not screw this up, shall we?" Going back and forth from the former to the latter in the same day takes a little getting used to.

Below are two examples of beautiful homes in need of a light touch to make them just right for their respective owners. 

First, a bathroom in need of a tub-to-shower conversion. Rip out the tub, replace the tile, new plumbing fixtures, glass shower enclosure, and couple other minor items. No big deal, right? Except that the existing bathroom was pretty nice before we arrived. Nothing defective, nothing that would make you shudder in horror, and it was obvious to us that the bathroom had been well-designed and well-constructed with good quality materials.  

Still, it did not fit the needs of the current family, and now it does.

By the way, a message to whomever laid the original tile: it took us many hours of hard labor to remove it because you were trained on the Hoover Dam or something else designed to last forever. Expert craftsmanship is a serious pain to redo, and we admired your work, in a way. We hope you would approve of the result.      

At what height should the shower head be placed? Tall owners require taller than average placement, so it's a good idea to stand in the shower before setting the final plumbing position. 

Next up is a century-plus old farmhouse that had been well-maintained and tastefully modernized over the years. The original details were thoughtfully preserved and a small handful of updates were requested by a family that appreciated the classic good looks of this old home.

In this case, the master bedroom needed new wood floors, a more functional walk-in closet, new lighting, paint, and a better hold on the proportions of the large space with the vaulted ceiling.

Access to the closet though two new barn doors, and the alcove above the barn doors was enclosed to manage the proportions of the bedroom. Carpet was replaced with new red oak flooring to match the existing floor in the house. 

LED lighting recessed into the beams illuminates the tall ceilings with up-light.

The new closet with built-ins by Perfection Custom Closets includes a desk with under-cabinet lighting. 

This old farmhouse is in good hands with the current owners, and we expect it will be well-lived in for many years to come. There is something enduring and endearing about this home, and we were glad to be a small part of it.