A Newsletter Supplement for Members of the

Like many people shopping for a home in the Seattle area today, Club members Stanley and Doreen had a tough time fi nding an affordable property they liked when moving here from Portland. They wanted to live in the Seward Park area – a vibrant, fast-changing, multi-cultural neighborhood that is also home to their only daughter and grandchild – but couldn’t fi nd any suitable real estate. So, the recent retirees decided to buy a lower-cost home (a small, purple house that had been badly remodeled over the years) and hire a HOC-authorized contractor to completely remake it.

Members Turn An Older House Into Their Dream Home

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NOTE: The text for this article appeared in the April - May, 2015, issue of the Home Owners Club newsletter.

AFTERThe basic shape and structure of the house remain. But all the exterior features have been upgraded (new siding, new windows, new porch, new landscaping, and more).

BEFOREThe exterior of the house was in good condition, but lacked style.

The current yellow paint is the primer color. The fi nal colors will be a combination of these two grays, together with a white trim (shown on the vertical trim piece on the right).

The front door will be painted with an attention-grabbing red hue.

BEFOREDuring the construction phase, the living room, dining room and entryway were all stripped down to bare studs. And the walls separating those spaces were permanently removed.

AFTERToday, the living room, dining room and entryway are all one big space, which makes the house feel much larger, and makes entertaining much more inclusive.

A giant brick fi replace used to occupy the living room wall where the TV now sits. Today, a sheik new Malm metal fi replace provides ambience and heat in a fraction of the space.

In the old layout, everyone was forced to enter the house via a tight hallway. Today, you step right through the front door and into the spacious living room.

BEFOREThe old kitchen space was dark, narrow and separated from the rest of the house.

AFTERThe new kitchen is sunny, open to the main living space, and features custom cherry cabinets. The stainless steel center island not only adds style, but also serves as a serious workspace for baking and other culinary arts.

The informal dining space is combined with the kitchen. A large cherry storage cabinet sits at one end. And the glass door to the side yard fi lls this area with even more natural light.

In places where the original wood fl oors meet the new wood fl oors (such as here, at the edge of the kitchen), the HOC-authorized contractor blended them for a nearly seamless transition.

There was no master bedroom in the original layout; just two tiny bedrooms in the back of the house. Stanley and Doreen combined those rooms to create a large master bedroom with a walk-in closet and master bath.

The sliding glass doors on the south wall of the master bedroom will soon lead to a second-fl oor deck off the back of the house. In the meantime, Stanley and Doreen can content themselves with territorial views of the neighbor-hood, and their new backyard land-scaping.

The master bathroom features a large operable skylight, quartz counters, tile fl ooring, custom cabinets and two sunken sinks.

Subway tiles line the interior of the master bath-room shower. A rainwater shower head is avail-able overhead, or a wall-mounted hand-held unit.

Stanley and Doreen found this iron railing at a building materials salvage store. Their HOC-authorized contractor had it customized for the space with a wood top rail and additional iron balustrades.

The old interior stairway to the lower level was dark and narrow, with a center wall down the middle and a head-banging overhang at the landing. Today, the stairway is spacious and inviting. A skylight above helps brighten the space during daylight hours.

BEFOREOn the original house, one of the few windows for the lower level was tightly constrained by the window well.

AFTERThe new window well is lined with stone and tapers away from the house – which greatly increases the amount of natural light, and makes this window a legal emergency exit.

The new landscaping in the front of the house features a dry creekbed, boulders and drought-tolerant native-Northwest plants.

Doreen is an avid gardener and can hardly wait to spend more time tending to her new plantings.

The stones used for the backyard patio are actually chunks of concrete left over from the driveway-removal project

Interested in learning more?Contact the Club to consult with the HOC-authorized contractor who performed this remodel.

CALL:(206) 622-3500

CLICK:homeownersclub.org

E-MAIL:staff@homeownersclub.org