The Unplanned Renovation After the Fire

This story hits close to home: Hope’s father in law’s house suffered an unpreventable kitchen fire. Due to faulty wiring inside the microwave oven, a fire broke out in the kitchen. Besides the direct damage from the fire, there was additional extensive water and smoke damage in other parts of the home.

The fire was frightening and unwelcomed, but because the house needed extensive reconstruction, we turned it into an opportunity to rearrange a lot in that house! Which is a nice way of saying, we fixed some design disasters made by the original owners!

Originally a small ranch, the prior owner had added an L-shaped addition that wrapped around the kitchen. That addition created a long skinny dining room and long skinny living room. Although you could walk through the kitchen from the added rooms, it was awkward, with no flow through the kitchen, dining room and living room. When you were in the kitchen, there was minimal connection to these adjacent spaces, even though it was at the heart of the house.

In tackling the 2 poorly designed additions, we removed two of the original exterior walls. Opening these walls required installing large beams. We did keep one post to reduce the overall costs. Strategically, we designed the placement of the post so that it looks intentional and is up against the island rather than stuck in the middle of the room. Now the living room feels way larger since we removed the walls.

Additionally, we were happy to solve another huge problem area – the front door opened into a really narrow hallway, which also had an open stair to the basement. The railing around the basement stairs was so close to the front door that you couldn’t open the front door all the way! The coat closet in the front entrance was positioned over those basement stairs. So – going downstairs required you to duck!

The easiest and best solution was to move the placement of the front door. Funny enough, moving the front door was something the family had talked about many times over the years and yet never got around to accomplishing.

Containing costs, we kept the existing stairs to the basement (it was cheaper to move the front door). We moved the coat closet and made it bigger, which in turn made the stairs roomier. The entrance to the basement (no longer crowding the front door) now has a beautiful railing, and because it’s off to the side, there’s no need to duck. Moving the front door allowed us to create a roomy front entrance in an area that was previously underutilized.

The bedrooms and the bathroom had some water damage but mostly came back to life after some minor repairs and a fresh coat of paint. The flooring throughout the house underwent a dramatic change as we installed hardwood floors throughout. Where they used to be a nightmare mix of assorted tile floors, wide plank flooring that buckled under the water damage, and wall to wall carpeting that covered old linoleum flooring, the home now features original and new hardwood floors that were all refinished to look uniform and shiny new.

The kitchen footprint had been an ok size but it consisted of a tiny work area and a table for eating. We removed the formal dining room to create a spacious and airy open kitchen with a dining area where people can cook and eat and chat. The open space now has an island that provides counter space and cabinetry in the “living area” of the room.

The reveal and move-in of the improved house came just days before a family birthday party (see below). It was an emotional “grand opening” as they hadn’t been able to live in the home for 20 months. Dad exclaimed, “this is enormous!” but there was no addition – just reconfiguring wasted spaces.

Enough of the family’s furniture survived the fire, so despite the improvements, and except for a new couch and bar stools for the island, the house still “felt” like home.

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