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The renovation of a renovation.
Janet Curry got the real deal on her brick American four-square in the Grandin Court area. No one wanted a kitchen that, decades earlier, had been relocated to the back porch and was so narrow you could practically touch opposite walls at the same time. But Curry saw potential.
Now, 20 years later, the old layout has served its purpose, the house is paid off, and Curry is ready for something fresh and new.
Enter BSI. Highly recommended by Curry’s architect brother-in-law Mike Kennedy, Building Specialists, Inc. transformed Janet’s home back to its original glory.
“The biggest challenge,” says Josh Beisley, project manager with BSI, “was matching the materials and details so that the new work looks like the old.” And considering everything they did, the project was a success.
How someone else tried to make it better
In the 1980s, the homeowners needed a lower level bedroom. To create one, they moved the kitchen to the back porch and converted the now vacant space. However, their plan didn’t keep the historical charm of the home, which was built in 1928, nor did it include the same quality of work. A job that made life convenient for one family, made it inconvenient for the next.
Why wait 20 years?
“That’s a good question,” says Curry. “First, it was paid for. Second, I thought I might someday want that downstairs bedroom for my mother.”
And it turned out, she was right. Although Janet’s mother lived in West Virginia, she frequently visited the area because both Janet and her sister lived within a few miles of each other. Then, when in her mid-80s, Curry’s mother fell and broke her hip. From that point on, she lived with Curry until passing from liver cancer a few years ago.
But, Curry isn’t getting any younger herself. So, the project needed to put the kitchen back where it belonged and have the space for a future lower level bedroom should the need ever arise. With work to the back porch, bathroom, dining room, kitchen and foyer, they did just that. Let’s take a tour, one room at a time.
The Back Porch
Coming in through the back door, Curry now enters a combination mud/laundry room. Removing the kitchen from this area created the necessary space to bring the laundry up from the basement. “It’s so wonderful to have the laundry up here,” says Curry.
Shelves right inside the door provide storage for shoes and other items. A new set of Maytag Bravo washer and dryer occupies most of the room. Curry purchased them from Austin’s Appliance Center on Franklin Road. Perfect for a mudroom, the Napa Grey tile floor hides any dirt tracked in from the backyard.
The Bathroom
Off the laundry area is a full bath with glassed-in shower. Perfectly located for a quick clean-up after gardening, this bath is also convenient for lower-level living. The grey color scheme includes everything from the shower and floor tile to the vanity cabinet and the curtain on the window. It gives the room a relaxing, yet elegant, feel.
The Dining Room
When Curry bought the home, a doorway connected the long galley kitchen to the dining room. That made sense. But, since she was moving the kitchen, it didn’t make sense to have a door from the laundry, so they closed it in. Since the renovation, you travel from the laundry room into the kitchen. Closing off the dining room that way, and installing French doors between the dining room and the other adjoining rooms, Janet can use it as a bedroom in the future, if needed.
The Kitchen
One of Beisley’s favorite parts of this job was returning the kitchen to its original location. “The flow of the home was re-established with the doorway changes,” he said. “And, we restored the kitchen as the heart of the home.”
Curry agrees. But getting there was a challenge to her.
“We couldn’t figure out how the original layout would have been,” she says. “I thought that in the 1920s, they would have put the kitchen sink under the window. But the radiator is there.”
That puzzled Curry and her architect brother-in-law. But, Beisley says the radiators were original from when the home was built, so the kitchen sink must’ve been in another location.
“They would have put the plumbing lines on interior walls so they didn’t freeze,” he says. “These old homes don’t have any insulation.”
Once settling on the location for the sink, Curry’s next job was to create a workable placement of the appliances.
“Mike had the best idea,” she says.
He suggested she use several large boxes to make models of the appliances she had picked out. Then, moving them around the room, she could see what fit where to produce the best layout and keep the flow.
The finished space sports all new GE stainless steel appliances from Vinton Appliance Center in Vinton. They replaced the original asbestos linoleum with 2’x1’ rye-colored ceramic tile. Ideal Cabinet Studio on Franklin Road created custom cabinets, topped with granite.
And that pesky radiator? They covered it with a handy bar, perfect for cooling pies. Shutters on the windows, a subway tile backsplash, and an under-mount, stainless steel farmhouse sink finish the seamless 1920s vibe.
The Foyer
Large enough to be a room of its own, the home’s front entry almost seemed like wasted space. So, to take advantage and complete the lower living plan, BSI constructed a large walk-in closet adjacent to the stairs. Currently providing space for coats and a vacuum cleaner, the closet has plenty of room for an entire wardrobe.
Aging in place renovations aren’t always an easy task. Especially when you want to keep the character of the original construction. But once again, BSI pulled it off beautifully. When asked, “What’s next?” Curry replies, “I think I’m good for a while.”
The story above is from our September/October 2020 issue. For the full story subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!