Once upon a time there was a house. It was sad and neglected, but it had great potential for all it's dreams to come true. Along came a family to rescue it from obscurity and help it to live happily ever after.

And so it begins .... After a couple years of planning, our client's big renovation project is underway!

We came into this process at the very beginning - when the homeowners first purchased the house, they knew they would renovate for better flow and usability. We were able to do a few things immediately, like add an archway to open up the family living space to the dining room allowing both rooms to work better, and paint some of the dark built-ins to brighten and refresh the space, but the big projects - involving the kitchen, laundry, and all the bathrooms would require a major reorganization.

Some before pictures of the kitchen...

We began with concept sketches playing around with moving the bathroom and laundry area to a more remote spot so that the kitchen could flow better into the other living spaces.

And moving the quirky second bath and bedroom upstairs (before pictures below) so that a true master suite could be created without sacrificing a guest room.

Over the course of two years we refined the plans to include everything on the homeowners wish list: a gourmet eat-in kitchen, a separate laundry room, a first floor powder room, a hard-working home office, a reworked family space with a new fireplace, a mudroom and closet space by the garage, a master suite with a luxury bathroom, a family bath with more storage, retaining the existing laundry chute, and maintaining four bedrooms. Whew! A huge project, but the results will be spectacular!

Now the family has moved out for the 6 month project and the demolition has begun.

Check back soon for chapter two as we share the progress in this renovation tale!