Our Home Renovation

Our house was custom-built in 1975 by a WCU college professor Ruth and her husband Harry. It was their dream home and in 1995 it became our home. We fell in love with the beautiful, 2.5 acre lot on which it sits; we have several mature oaks, beech and poplar trees, some of which tower to heights of 80 feet or more. The house was bigger than what we had in the borough of West Chester and it was only four miles from the WCU south campus where Chuck works.

The original design is contemporary, with various rooflines and a range of interior room sizes from a large open living room to smaller bedrooms and some odd angular spaces. We loved the openness of the central living area but always felt the following needs:
1 - Too small of a kitchen
2 - Not enough natural lighting, particularly on our southern side
3 - A confusing front versus side door entrance
4 - A pantry/laundry room combination that was in the wrong place (guests would always walk through it, especially when they came to our Back??? door instead of our Front??? door.

Finally, after 35 years, our roof had begun to leak and the cedar siding was falling prey to carpenter bees and the woodpeckers who chase them...

It was time to do some major renovations - so here is the existing house:



At left, above, Chuck examines the architect's plans for the renovations. The total job includes lots of wall moving, changing two bathrooms, enlarging the master bedroom, moving the powder and laundry rooms and other style upgrades (new interior and exterior doors, all new windows, new trim and flooring in renovated areas). The plans went through several iterations, including downsizing the original ideas to ultimately stay within the existing home foundation.

At right, above, Chuck is standing in our hidden front doorway, behind the low, sloping front porch. This porch will go away to make room for a smaller, higher, more visible entrance. We love the stone wall - it will stay.




The view at top shows the front view of the house - our "before" picture. The front door is behind the tree in front of the porch. The side door that leads into our pantry/laundry room is to the left, behind a free-standing wall. Still, it looks more inviting than the front door does.

The view above, shows the west side of the house, with front porch on the far right, side door in the center right and garage door on the left. The small extension behind the duck (to our dog Maya's right) is a small shed. The shed will go away and a man-door will appear there. The side door will go away and will become a west-facing window into our new kitchen. The laundry room will go into the corner of the garage in front of the van, which is now a bumped-out corner.



To the left, above, is a view from our master bedroom into the master bath. The window at far left (at belly-button height below a low ceiling) is the only one in this bedroom. Way too small!

The view at right is our galley kitchen. When Maya chooses to lay in front of the sink, as she is here, she takes up almost the whole space! There will be some big changes in this room...!!!