Finished Product

Although we were intimately involved in every step of our renovation, when we met our contractor for the final walk through and she handed us our keys, it was pretty surreal.  Our contractor, Angela, had promised to be on time and on budget.  As we got our keys we were one week ahead of schedule and $200 over budget.  Even more important, we were over the moon about how it all came together.  We could share a ton of pictures of the final product, but think these highlight our favorite parts of our new house.

The back patio gives a whole new life to the enjoyment of our backyard.  For ten years we lived with a brick deck that was crumbling more and more each year, leading Captain Caution to tell everyone to stay off of it.  Now, however, we have a patio that we are eager to use for morning coffee, evening cookouts, and general hanging out.

One of Sarah's expressed desires was a mud room.  She needed a place that would contain the smell shoes, school backpacks, and the general chaos that tends to spread out as people enter the house.  Our new back entrance does everything she had hoped it would.  There is now a separate space for each family member to keep his/her shoes, bags, and jackets organized.

We didn't do too much in the living room, but what we did do makes a huge difference.  The new paint job is nice, but the bigger deal is that we opened up what used to be a closed staircase to the second floor.  John no longer has to worry about hitting his head on the door frame exiting the stairs and we can easily view who might be coming around the corner.  Honestly, these are small changes but they have had a tremendous impact on our overall enjoyment of the house.

We knew that four individuals using one bathroom with a pedestal sink had an expiration date that was soon approaching.  So we made  the decision to change the downstairs so that the former den and guest room became the master bedroom suite.  The guest room is now part closet and part master bathroom.  We are very happy to have our own bathroom that only has our toothpaste left in the sink.  This has also given Callie and Reese free reign over the upstairs, for better or worse.

They say the heart of the house is the kitchen.  If that is the case, then for ten years, the heart of our house was small and isolated from the rest of the body.  But now, like the Grinch, our heart grew three sizes at least and we could not be happier about how it looks and increased the functionality of the house overall.  We love the kitchen and how it provides increased opportunities for all of us to be in the same space even as we are doing different things.

If you know us you know that we are not style gurus when it comes to interior decorating (or anything, really).  However, we were pretty impressed with our decision to keep a part of the old back of the house as well as our selection of dining room lighting.  It is another wonderful part of the overall space we added on to the house.

But undoubtedly one of the first things you see when you walk toward the back of our house are the huge windows that now allow us to have a full view of our backyard and let in tons of natural light.  We knew we wanted more natural light but did not realize just how great it would be to have these windows.  And when all is said and done, none of this would have been possible without the skill and generosity of our favorite architect, Chris Chrisman.  His knowledge, patience, and taste made this renovation exceed all of our expectations.  He talked to us and made drawings for us for more than a year before we even began selecting contractors, he came with us to pick out windows, cabinets, and other critical elements, he talked us through the entire experience, and he will always have our undying gratitude.  Words cannot capture our appreciation for all that he did for us.  And now we get to share it with him and Sharon, because the path between our houses leads right to our fashionable back patio and we look forward to sharing more wine and laughter with both of them.