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Before, During, and After |
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Written by by Barbara Marquand “After” photos by Michael Imus
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Sunday, 01 February 2009 |
Before embarking on a remodeling project, interior designer Cydne Sapperstein tries to prepare clients for the inevitable chaos of living in a house undergoing construction, but she says no one truly understands until they go through it.
Susan* couldn’t agree more after her family of six lived through a three-and-a-half month remodel of their home in southwest Reno. (*Name was changed to protect the privacy of the family.)
“Your home is your haven, and I don’t think you can really anticipate what the process will be like,” she says. “I don’t think you can conceptualize it.”
Susan’s family recently redid parts of the entryway, kitchen, living room, bathrooms, and master suite. Sapperstein designed the project and oversaw all the subcontractors. Now the new fireplace mantel provides a striking focal point in the living room, granite countertops gleam in the kitchen, and custom-made wallpaper – a work of art in and of itself – adds color and texture in the master suite and bathrooms.
“It’s amazing,” Susan says. “We just stand here and say, ‘I love this view.’ Then we stand in another place and say, ‘Oh, this is the best view.’”
Now that it’s finished, the family is glad they undertook the project.
But remodeling is not for the faint of heart.
Before-and-after pictures in glossy magazines make remodeling look simple – beautiful transformations with just the turn of a page. But they tell only part of the story – the beginning and end. The middle, the part no one ever sees, is where the action occurs, and all the dust, noise, inconvenience, and stress. This is the part about which homeowners must be educated, Sapperstein says.
“You have to mentally prepare yourself,” she says. “You have no idea of how ugly it is to live through it.”
Sapperstein buys, remodels, and resells homes – and lives in them during the projects.
“I’m very sensitive to what homeowners go through because I live it myself,” she says. In working with clients, she hires only subcontractors who have proven themselves in her own homes.
Susan does not complain – the family still had a home to live in, after all, she says, but they did have to adapt their lifestyle. The living room and kitchen were off limits for three months, so the family of six did dishes and cooked in a microwave in the laundry room, and spent most of their time in a basement family room, next to a pool table piled high with dishes and utensils emptied from the kitchen cabinets. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
“We didn’t eat out,” she says. “We had to learn how to cook without using an oven. We used the grill outside, and we learned how to make pasta and rice in the microwave. The electric skillet came in handy, too.”
Workers were in and out of the house throughout the project, and the four kids – three in college and one in high school – learned to study to the accompaniment of drilling and pounding.
While the dust was flying, the house was undergoing a remarkable transformation. The kitchen was gutted. Some of the cabinets were refinished and reused, and others were custom made to match. A large island, which had no storage space, was replaced with a new granite-topped island with cabinets underneath, microwaves and a sink. The main kitchen sink was moved to a spot under a window.
The kitchen also features new tumble travertine flooring, new lighting, new appliances, and a redesigned pantry with double the space. A marble back-splash and a dramatic stove hood mantelpiece add drama.
New tumble travertine flooring with embedded marble was installed in the entryway, and new carpeting was laid in the living and dining rooms, upstairs hallway and master suite. A new mantel was built around the fireplace in the living room.
The bathrooms were updated with new flooring and granite-topped vanities. Walls throughout much of the house were repainted or covered with custom-made wallpaper. Upstairs, in the master suite, a beam was added at the roofline, and a chandelier was installed to replace an outdated light fixture.
The family had done some repainting and remodeling over the years, but this was by far the largest project they had ever tackled. The house was showing the wear and tear of 18 years of busy family life with four children, and it needed an update. Susan says they wanted to make the home marketable in case they decide to downsize after the children leave the nest, and they wanted to do it now so the family could enjoy a newly remodeled home in the meantime.
They knew they wanted to update the kitchen. The warranties on the appliances were about to expire, and the room featured a number of inconveniences. For one, the refrigerator door when opened minimized the traffic between it and the island. Storage space was lacking, and the overall design made the workflow awkward for a family with young adults. The new island features lots of storage space underneath, and it’s conveniently situated under plenty of recessed lighting. The entire family can share in cooking with new appliances, making cooking and cleanup easier, too – now there are two dishwashers, two ovens, two microwaves, and a huge stainless steel refrigerator and freezer.
Once they decided to redo the kitchen, the homeowners knew they’d have to redo the entryway floor, which flows into the kitchen. And from there, the changes accumulated throughout the house, a domino effect familiar to anyone who has ever tried to make a simple home improvement.
“If you’re going to move the island, then you have to replace the counter, then you’re really going to have to replace the floor. If you change one thing, everything’s changed, like giving a mouse a cookie,’” Susan says.
Adds Sapperstein: “As rooms become completed, other rooms look dingy or neglected.”
It’s often more cost effective to do a large project than make improvements in a piecemeal fashion. Painters, for instance, will offer a better deal per room for painting three rooms than one, for instance, Sapperstein says.
The most challenging part of the project was dealing with delays. Every remodel project has some sort of glitch, and this one was no different. The beautiful granite the couple ordered for the kitchen turned out to have multiple cracks, for instance, and new granite had to be ordered.
“If you change one thing, everything’s changed, like a domino effect,” Susan says. “Things happen, and you also decide to make changes yourself, and the best laid plans fall apart. It’s good to have time lines, but you have to remember they’re just paper.”
The overall vision though remained constant. When they decided to remodel, Sapperstein asked the homeowners to look through design books and magazines and mark anything they liked. Then together they narrowed the ideas down to concepts, and Sapperstein pulled all the pieces together.
“You space plan and make a room more effective,” Sapperstein says. “In a kitchen, the key is appliances and entertaining, dual cooking, and storage. I always rework the classic triangle, as kitchens and families have changed.”
Many homeowners have trouble visualizing from blueprints, so during the planning phase, Sapperstein draws the plan right on the walls and floors.
“I also use pictures so they have the mindset and are not wondering about the outcome. I request that they walk it and live it before it is concrete. This is the time to make changes; otherwise, it is very expensive to go backward.”
Of course, sometimes the unexpected happens. A hidden plumbing problem may be discovered once the work begins, for instance.
“You’re problem-solving every day,” Sapperstein says. “Communication and flexibility are of utmost importance with clients and subs for a successful completion.”
Having a trusted person to lead the project is critical, Susan says. She couldn’t always conceptualize how all the pieces would work together. Sapperstein, she says, “was the vision holder. She listened carefully, and she knew where we were going.”
Meanwhile, the project stayed within its budget.
Cost effectiveness is always a priority, but in today’s economy it’s critical. “I think resale and am very sensitive in this market,” Sapperstein says. “We achieved a dream kitchen at a fraction of the price.”
Sapperstein suggested several options to save money without losing elegance. Using medium-density fiberboard to construct the kitchen island and fireplace mantel saved thousands of dollars. Custom-made wallpaper provided the look of faux painting at far less cost. Glass and marble scraps were used in the backsplash in the kitchen. The corbels above the stove look like intricately carved wood but are made from resin. Instead of replacing all the kitchen cabinets, some were refinished and reused in the kitchen and others were moved to the garage where more storage was needed.
Designers have resources most homeowners don’t have to cut costs. They can get discounts and work with subcontractors to get more bang for the buck. “I have talented subs that can kick a project to look more expensive for half the cost,” she says. “Creativity is the key.”
Faux painting artist Susie Alexander, for instance, treated and painted the cooktop hood to look old and painted the island to look like an antique piece. She also evened up all the stained pieces that were made from medium-density fiberboard to look like real wood.
“She’s my magic wand,” Sapperstein says.
The cost-cutting moves didn’t sacrifice the beauty of the job or the family’s joy in their new home.
“It’s gorgeous,” the homeowners say.
Barbara Marquand is a Reno-based freelance writer. |
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