Lucky Number 7 -The Duplex Before and After

I don't think we had any idea what we were getting into when we started on the duplex.  It was a foreclosure and I'd like to blame the lack of running water and electricity that kept us from seeing the warning signs!  But we certainly learned a lot about what can happen to a building that has been vacant for 4 years.  It takes quite a toll!

The challenges included a deck that was completely rotted away.












Asbestos on the pipes that cost a fortune to remediate to the EPA standards (it was a big job and included a surprise inspection from the EPA - story here).




Knob and tube wiring throughout (click here for the rest of the story).





A basement that looked like a wading pool in a heavy rain, which required regrading the entire yard.

And an additional kitchen install that we didn't originally plan on, due to lack of plumbing vents and crumbling walls when we jacked up the sagging floors.

But the finished product is a beauty!  As usual, Waterhouse Builders did a beautiful job.   Check out the 'Owner's Unit' in this video.

And here are the before and after photos of the 'Tenant's Unit'.

The living room and dining room were both nice sized rooms.  But they felt totally cut off from the kitchen, which was sequestered in the back of the house.   So we had some work to do to create a more open floor plan.

The solution was to move the antique china hutch a few feet to the right and eliminate a couple of walls (I make it sound so simple, they were load bearing and it was a lot of work!  The whole story is here).

Living Room with original stained glass window

And suddenly the whole space feels open and bright - particularly the hallway, which became big and open to the kitchen.

The kitchen was transformed, when we gutted the old space and updated it with new cabinetry, quartz countertops and a custom backsplash.  The only thing that stayed in the same place were the door and windows (although they were replaced with new, energy efficient ones).

With the custom marble and subway tile, light and open shelving installed

View towards the Dining Room - Before the hallway was opened up and the bedroom door closed to provide room for the range and butcher block peninsula.  

There were two small bedrooms off of the kitchen, which we decided to combine and create one large bedroom.  You can see them both in the photo to the left (gold and red!).

The finished bedroom is huge (12 x 20) with double closets and plenty of space for everything!

The first floor bathroom also got a complete upgrade.

But the biggest changes were upstairs.  We started with a dark small bedroom at the end of a dingy hallway - that got transformed into a master suite.

There was a surprising amount of unused space in the attic.  We decided to take advantage of it and increase the footprint of the space by 50%.

The master bedroom - before.  We opened up the far left wall, installed a skylight to make the space light and inviting, and installed new wall to wall carpeting (the old flooring was used on the first floor, to patch all the spaces from the wall removal).

The master bath - before (aka the attic space)

Much better than attic space - don't you think? 

And the renovations didn't stop on the interior.  We had to rip off the old decks and the scary staircase that ended in mid air and build two new decks with a balcony off of the other duplex unit (the full story is here).

The trim work on the deck makes it a real show piece.

We decided not to sell this house and rent it instead.  As you can probably guess, it didn't take us long to find renters!  Who can resist moving into a brand new space, with all the antique charm of the original?





Pin It

It's Starting to Look Like a House - With a Surprise

Once the walls were up and the roof was on, it really started to look like a house.  But we were a bit surprised when we pulled up one day and discovered the roofline was flat at the top.  What?  That wasn't in the plan!

Our builder Joe calmly told us that he was measuring the height and when he got to 30 feet, he stopped.  And capped the roof there.  The building code is 30 feet and he figured that's where it should stop.  

Did he think about giving us a call?  Or chatting with the city (they had already approved the plans!)?  Because the determining the height is a bit complicated, since you need to account for the elevation at various  spots on the property.  Not just the one spot where he measured.  His answer - No.  And at this point it was already roofed, so it would be a lot of work to change.  So....... we ultimately decided it adds character, in an odd sort of way.   Even though it wasn't part of the original design.

Once framing was completed, we needed to install the windows.  One of our guidelines from the start, was to try and use as many local materials as we could.  And a key element were the windows.  We decided to go with a local window manufacturer - Paradigm.  We visited their offices and they helped us come up with a design that gave us the vintage look we wanted - with all the high efficiency elements we need in our harsh Maine climate.  One of my favorite stories after the house was finished:  the first Halloween we were in the house, one of the craftsman that made our windows stopped by to trick or treat with her kids.  They live in the neighborhood!  How cool is that?

A trick to remember if you're focused on views - don't finalize some of the window placement, until the walls were up.  That lets you capitalize on the views and think through things like furniture placement.  For example, on the north side of the house, we never planned on a lot of windows.  But when we saw how nice the view in the guest room was, we moved it to a different spot, that still allowed a nice wall for the bed.

Rear Elevation - lots of windows for the water views!

And once they framed in the front porch, it really started to come together.

Our dog Daphne certainly approved!

Pin It

Creating Our Own Dream Kitchen

We have renovated many kitchens over the years - everything from minor updates (new hardware & appliances) to major gut jobs.  And we've always done them with an eye for resale, trying to balance our needs and desires with what a later buyer might want.  But for this house, we decided to focus on us.  We probably won't live in this house forever - but we wanted to design it with just our needs in mind.

So, I wanted to do a custom kitchen with custom cabinets.  For years, I've lusted over inset cabinet doors - but could never justify the cost.   So instead, we had always gone with semi-custom cabinetry in our own remodels. But this wasn't a giant kitchen and this seemed like a great approach for our new house.

But first a quick lesson on cabinet door styles.  The least expensive cabinets (and a traditional style found in many older homes) is a standard overlay.  It has a door or drawer that partially covers the cabinet.  That means that the cabinet has a frame on it, which shows around the edges of the door and drawer.












Full overlay (sometimes called European) is put on a frameless cabinet and the door covers the entire cabinet.  This is much more popular and gives you the maximum amount of access to the cabinet space behind it - because there is no frame to get in the way and the hinges are mounted at the very edge of the cabinet.  It also provides a more seamless, cohesive look.



Inset cabinets are custom made and fit inside the cabinet frame.  There is no room for error, they need to be perfectly square and fit exactly.  Because of this, they are also more expensive.  And in my mind, they have a more traditional style, particularly suited to a New England home.

If you're going with inset cabinets, you need a very good cabinet maker.  I wanted ours to be made by Cook & Cook Cabinetry.  They are a small, family owned business in Scarborough Maine.  We made an appointment with them and fell in love with their approach and process, as we toured their cabinet making shop.  We were ready to sign on the dotted line, when we discovered they were so booked with other jobs, we would have to wait several months for our cabinets - putting our whole construction schedule in serious jeopardy.

So, while I was extremely disappointed, there was also a bright spot.  They had introduced us to Robin Amorello, owner of Atmoscaper Design.  Robin is a top notch kitchen designer and has become a good friend.  The first time we met Robin, I brought along my dog eared folder of magazine clippings. I pulled out my favorite kitchen - and discovered it was a kitchen she had designed!!  How cool is that???  She had a client that wanted a kitchen that looked like the one in the movie 'Something's Gotta Give'.  And the photo below was what she came up with.  Isn't it a gorgeous kitchen?  We used it as the inspiration for our kitchen - but on a much smaller scale! (want to see what the 'Something's Gotta Give' house looked like in the movie?  Hooked on Houses did a great post about it with lots of photos!)

Photo:  Atmoscaper Design

We made an appointment, sat down with Robin and our blueprints, and got to work.  We wanted a big island, with plenty of room for working, as well as seating to chat with the chef (that would be Richard - he's a much better cook than I am).  We wanted a 'hutch' to provide attractive storage as well as have a furniture look, reminiscent of old style kitchens and similar to the one in the photo above.  And we have a lot of cookbooks, so some bookshelves would be great.  We have a big stove (seriously, when you have a husband that loves to cook, he can have any kind of stove he wants), so I wanted a display area above it, to try and hide the giant exhaust fan.  And finally, I hate the look of microwaves, so we needed to try and find a place to hide it.

We sketched out a couple of ideas and then Robin came back with two options.  The house was just getting started at that point (only a few exterior walls were up), but we laid out two by fours and did a mock up of the island with sawhorses - much to the neighbor's entertainment!!!  And we finally settled on this design.  

The back wall has the hutch (including glass cabinet doors) and a big farmers sink under the windows.  The dishwasher will be hidden behind a wood panel, to the left of the sink. The hutch will feature glass doors, shelves and a bead board interior.

  

The side wall has the range, the refrigerator and the door to the pantry. We are also going to include small awning windows between the counter and the upper cabinets.  This is something we had done on a house when we lived in Phoenix and loved how it brought daylight onto the countertops (and they provide some nice ventilation as well).  We included big drawers - we love them for pots and pans!  And we'll disguise the vent hood with a mantle style wooden hood, that gives me lots of room for decorative pieces.  Finally, we had room for a small pantry to the right of the refrigerator.

We played with different ideas for the island and settled on this approach.  We loved the curved edge for the butcher block top - and wanted to make it big enough to seat four.   And since the butcher block would be 42 inches tall,  it gave us the extra bonus of providing a taller spot to hide the microwave - with a lot less bending over to use it (see elevation B below)!  The back of the island will be covered in bead board (which can be easily painted, since it will inevitably get scuffed from people sitting there).  We also included a small prep sink, roll out trash/recycling cans and a bookcase (elevation D) for our cookbooks - even though they are becoming obsolete as we start using an iPad instead!  Robin was great to work with throughout the whole process, she helped us find another cabinetmaker and we got everything ordered.

For the backsplash, I wanted to use white subway tile - but dress it up a bit with this Walker Zanger recycled glass and marble mosaic.  Since our house is close to the beach, I wanted to use colors and textures that blended with the beach - shimmery and sandy.  I included some iridescent glass bars from Oceanside Glasstile to heighten the effect.  

For the island, our contractor planned to make a custom cherry butcher block top, including the beautiful curved edge.  And we wanted black granite for the rest of the counters - that will imitate soapstone, with much less maintenance.

Does it look like the kitchen from 'Something's Gotta Give'?  Well there are probably some similarities.   But when we get it done, it will be all ours!

Pin It