This house has an interesting past. Originally a neighborhood corner store, it was later converted to a residential home. Prior to its purchase by the current owners, it was remodeled and expanded many times. Unfortunately, some of the previous upgrades were not done very well and our clients needed to fix it, prompting this project.
The floor at the kitchen was sinking and the bathroom ceiling was leaking from a roof deck above. The kitchen was cut off from the rest of the open floor plan with a peninsula and upper cabinets, making it closed in and cramped. The finishes were outdated and did not fit the client’s aesthetic.
The new kitchen design opened the space and connected it to the rest of the house by replacing the peninsula and cabinets above with an island that improved traffic flow.
We eliminated a dropped ceiling and soffits, which created a seamless ceiling height throughout the main floor. We moved appliance locations to maximize the cabinets and countertops and make them easier to use. We also rebuilt the floor structure at the kitchen/dining area to fix the poor construction from the past. All the flooring on the main floor was replaced as well, tying everything together.
For the bathroom, the client wanted to replace the tub/shower with something that was easy for her mom to use when she was visiting. She also needed some additional storage and wanted the space to be light, airy, and have the same modern aesthetic as the rest of the house.
We designed the bathroom to have a curbless shower for ease of entry, removing the wall between the shower and vanity to bring in more light from the window and make the space feel bigger.
The vanity was replaced with a new floating one for a modern look. We added a built in shelving and the needed storage below by using extra space in the adjacent laundry room. When we demolished the space to the framing to repair the leak from above, we found that the exterior walls were almost two inches out of plumb and the floor system was not built correctly.
Once the project was complete the client commented that we captured her personality perfectly. “Every time I look at the space, I think, this is me.”
