Reflections on the Glenn house remodel

My last remodeling project was probably the one that generated the greatest learning and the most heartache with unexpected challenges. Before I buy a home, it has to “feel” right. If you believe that the walls of a home speak to you, then you know what I mean. I can sense if a home has been filled with love and laughter and I also sense when they don’t.

So when I purchased the Glenn house, I could tell it was well-loved, well-kept, but out-dated. The house is situated on a small cul-de-sac with 6 other homes.

It had relatively nice curb appeal, except for the entrance. I felt like yodeling every time I entered the front door. Not sure why it was so Swiss Family Robinson looking, but it made the front doors look diminutive. The pendant light is the wrong scale. And look at those skinny posts supporting the massive vaulted ceiling….quite odd.

We removed the skinny posts and beams, and created an arched overhang and added more substantial columns.

The after….new front doors painted black, new light fixtures, and richer paint colors. I replaced the overgrown ivy with healthier foundation plantings.

The entry had a low hanging soffit, a pony wall with dated wainscoting and my least favorite, tiled flooring throughout the entire house.

We eliminated the soffit because it interrupted the energy when you first walked into the house. We also removed the short wall, the floor tile, and the wainscoting.

Here is the new entrance with a clean, elegant updated look with energy efficient LED can lights everywhere.

From the entry you walk into a wonderful great room. At the end is the entrance to the kitchen. Outside is a small patio area.

We removed all the built-ins and also took down the wall between the great room and kitchen. My first intentions were to just remove wallpaper and repaint. However, the house had a funny smell, which we attributed to its age. However, in removing the kitchen walls we found a huge rodent infestation and the insulation was saturated with urine and feces. We ended up removing all the walls, spraying everything with bleach and baking soda, redoing the electrical and plumbing and adding new, clean, fresh smelling drywall!!!!

Every single house I have remodeled has this creepy loose insulation in the attic that is filled with dust and dirt. It’s a nasty job to remove it all and replace with new insulation, but I do it every time because I can’t stand this stuff.

We painted the beams and removed one set of sliding doors and added Anderson casement windows. The new dark hardwood flooring against the crisp white paint makes for a beautiful contrast. The stunning new kitchen/great room creates a desirable, contemporary open floor plan.

The large chandeliers are from Ballard Designs. The pendant lights over the peninsula are from Restoration Hardware.

I don’t know how professional photographers do it, but they make the living spaces look so huge. This room is actually quite reasonable in size vs. the picture. Kitchen cabinets were custom built. Countertops are white Carrera marble.

The powder room……such a small room, yet functional.

We removed the tile, replaced the fixtures and added this fabulous European wallpaper from Pixers to make the room feel bigger. I love adding a querky touch to each house I remodel. Light fixture and mirror from Restoration Hardware.

Next to the kitchen, was a den that we walled in and converted to a laundry/mud room.

The cabinets are from IKEA. Personally, I love their drawer mechanisms and assembly was rather easy.

The master bedroom, like the great room, had lots and lots of built-ins and wallpaper. We removed them and added a real, larger closet by taking some footage from the enormous master bathroom.

The master bathroom was well-equipped but required significant updating. It had what I call a “George Jetson” ceiling just like the kitchen. I am so happy those are no longer in style.

This is the first time I have used tile that looks like wood and I like the effect against the white walls and custom made vanity. Countertops are Carrera marble. Bathtub was ordered from Build.com.

The second bedroom just needed cosmetic work, but the bathroom required a complete overhaul. The hexagon window really date this room which we removed and replaced with an operating one.

Most of the square footage of the house is on one level. There is a loft bedroom/office, which is rather large. We closed in the area with the shelving below and added a new, full bathroom.

Love the curtains. There is no window behind them!!! However, we did add beautiful casement windows to capture the sky and rooftop views.

My sweet husband made the barn doors to cover the short closet/storage area, which is quite deep under the eaves.

Here’s the new bathroom that we added to the upstairs loft bedroom. At completion, this was a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath home, all newly redone and sold to happy homeowners.

Many thanks to my dear friend, and realtor, Shelley Caniglia, for finding these treasured homes for me to remodel and restore. There are many more pictures to share and if you would like to see the Glenn project in its completion, click here.

The professional photographs of the finished home were done by Trevor Smith with Tour Factory. The “during” photos were done by me long before I even considered doing a blog so I will need some latitude on the quality :). Hope you enjoyed the tour of the Glenn house. Now back to work on the Willetta restoration!

Save

A Bit of Sunshine

Typically, we enjoy sunny, sweater weather during the winter in Phoenix. I can’t recall a winter season being so gloomy and rainy~~don’t get me wrong, we love and need the rain, but it’s rare having several days of heavy, gray, overcast skies. The weather for the next 5 days will continue this pattern so I thought I’d share some sunshine pictures of the yard I took last week. Unlike other parts of the United States, winter is our “green time”. Some of the trees have lost their leaves, but for the most part, our landscape is colorful this time of year.

The orchard is abundant with citrus. The tangerine tree is so heavy with fruit this year and each piece is delicious.

We have lemons and grapefruits and a wide variety of oranges.

The previous owners planted a kumquat tree to celebrate a wedding anniversary. Now we get the benefit of this sweet/tart little fruit. A few years ago I made kumquat marmalade. It was a complete hassle trying to get all the numerous seeds out. I’m not sure I’ll admit it was worth the effort, but I’m certainly willing to try again! Or if anyone has a good recipe involving kumquats, let me know.

The garden is filled with lettuces, endive, cauliflower and broccoli. Tomatoes are still green but hopefully we will be picking those once the weather warms up.

Next to the vegetable garden is the flower garden and a perfect place to sit in the late afternoons.

My husband built this obelisk for me. It’s painted a French blue and has its place in the garden. Look at that cobalt sky!!!

The geraniums (which we brought down from the mountains a few months ago), are loving the cooler, damp weather.

And of course, here’s Cooper. He’s my constant companion following me around the yard on this gorgeous day.

Wherever you are, I am sending some sunshine to brighten your day!

Save

Restoration update!

So much has happened at the Willetta house restoration. To read the first post on this historical renovation click here. Perhaps the most noticeable change is to the front of the house. When I purchased it in August, the entire house was covered in aluminum siding. Here is the front of the house with the aluminum siding still on…well, some it anyway. Notice the big piece hanging down from the underside of the front terrace!!

We tested a small part of the back of the house and took off a few strips of the aluminum. Underneath was the original 3″ clapboard siding. I held my breath as we tore off the aluminum siding. I had no idea if the clapboard was still under the entire house, nor did I know the condition of the clapboard, which I assume has been covered for decades. Albeit dirty, the clapboard siding is in relatively good shape.

Yes, every window had security bars. We removed them and recycled all the aluminum siding and the metal bars.

We also removed all the original shutters on the front of the house. I have never seen this particular cut-out design on any shutter to date – not sure of its origin.

The pigeons over the last 20 years, have enjoyed roosting on the shutters. It will take a big effort to change that behavior! If anyone has any suggestions on how we can rid ourselves of these birds, please let me know. The shutters were painted black on one side and dark green on the other. An interesting way to change the look of your home!

The shutters on the first level cover the French doors that lead out to the terrace. Since the front of the house is south facing, the shutters are a brilliant way to keep the sun off the windows in the afternoon. The louvered door below was removed from inside and is resting on the exterior….and eventually ended up going home with one of the workers.

Most of the shutters were in relatively good condition and only a few needed to be completely replaced.

When we removed the aluminum siding from the underside of the porch ceiling, we found a great deal of water damage.

We needed to remove the blue ceiling and found even more damage to the structure underneath….cha-ching. After all that was removed and replaced, what a big improvement!

Here’s what it looks like today. I used a Sherwin Williams paint called Atmospheric for the blue and stayed with white for the house. Shutters have been painted black and re-hung. All 6 columns have been repaired.

Notice the beautiful craftsmanship in the detail at the roof line that is hard to find today. There are two different sizes of crown molding-some of it missing, some of it rotted. Fixing it was challenging. This nearly 100 year old structure is no longer square plus we needed to rent a lift in order to have the carpenter work at this height.

So as of today, here is the front of the house (with a new roof). We are waiting to paint the front doors/entrance when all the construction traffic dies down. As you can see by the piles of insulation, the rough-in of the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC are complete. Drywall starts at the end of the week. More to come!!!!

Save

Happy New Year-2017!!

Am I the only one, but doesn’t it seem like the turn of the century was just a few years ago???? Happy New Year~~wow, 2017!

Yesterday, we celebrated New Year’s Eve with a late afternoon dinner with family and friends. We began the day with a walk to the Fiesta Bowl parade, which starts just down the street from us. Thankfully the rain held off until after the parade..

We returned home and started our feasting with an apple cider mimosa~~ which surprisingly was quite yummy! My son made mussels in white wine and dunking soft French bread in the broth was the best part. A small charcuterie tray kept us satisfied until dinner.

I chose a gold-theme this year for the dinner table~~mostly to match the Champagne Cake made by my son (he loves to cook and takes full advantage of it while home from college!!!) The chargers are from Lesley Roy.

The dishes are simple white with a gold edge from Pottery Barn. Flatware is Wallace Napoleon Bee (with gold accents) that I purchased from Horchow.

The dinner menu was Chicken Breasts Sauteed in Apple Cider (from the Nordstrom Family Table cookbook), brussels sprouts (cooked the Trader Joe way with maple syrup, olive oil and pomegranates) and a simple kale salad with mandarin oranges and pine nuts.

Ah, dessert…..the Golden Champagne Celebration Cake.

The cookbook, Layered, by Tessa Huff, is dog-eared as we have used it so much lately. The goal is to bake every cake in the book and we are well on our way. A pure, buttery, vanilla cake with champagne buttercream~~with gold sanding sugar was truly spectacular.

Wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year. I hope 2017 is filled with joyful moments with family and friends.

Save