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Our clients purchased this 1940s home thinking the rundown property just needed a cosmetic makeover. As it turned out, the brick walls were damaged in places, the plumbing and wiring were outdated, there was no insulation in the walls, no air conditioning, and drafty single-pane windows. When our team saw it, they thought it looked haunted!

The family of five also wanted to modify the layout to create a large open kitchen with an adjacent mudroom, update all the bathrooms, and install a family room in the basement. The clients had an outline of a plan from a previous designer, but we had to significantly modify it and add repair work that we found during construction.

The biggest change to the first floor is the new kitchen. The existing kitchen, pantry, and dining room were three cramped rooms. We combined these three rooms to create one large beautiful kitchen and a mudroom that is central to the family’s everyday life.

The mudroom is located off the side entrance where the original kitchen was located and is close to the garage. The exterior door lines up with the door from the mudroom to the kitchen for great sightlines. We used custom cabinetry to create lockers for each of the three children. We reconfigured the nearby powder room and there is also a small study at the end of that hall.

The den off the original dining room had been a porch that was enclosed in the past remodel. The structure was not insulated. The owners wanted to use it as a dining room. We added insulation, new hardwood flooring, two new windows for additional light, and a sliding glass door to the patio. It is easily accessed from the kitchen.

We installed a new front door with glass to bring light into the foyer. We sanded and refinished the original door trim and stair railings. Down the hall from the entry foyer, we removed two closets in order to reconfigure the powder room, mudroom, and to make the study a little smaller.

We gutted and updated all five the bathrooms in the house. We reconfigured the powder room on the main floor to fit next to the new mudroom. In the master bathroom, we enlarged the shower and removed the old tub to create a hall closet to house a stacked washer/dryer.