Driscoll – Whole House Renovation II
| Rooms | Master Bathroom, Master Bedroom, Kitchen, Living Room, Entryway, Hallway |
|---|---|
| Project scope | Modernize the style of a 3-story luxury condo and make it liveable long-term for a senior couple |
| Award | 2019 Chrysalis Awards for Remodeling Excellence |
Aging-in-place was the goal for these homeowners in their 60s who hoped to make this multi-story condominium their “forever home.” They knew they wanted to update the kitchen and living room, but they wished to wait on redoing the master bath. But their desire for an elevator necessitated remodeling the bathroom, too, because the elevator would’ve opened into the shower!
A classic fireplace is reborn with modern touches. The new ventless electric fire box is now surrounded by dramatic stone and accent tiles and bookended by custom paint-grade storage closets. The stainless steel trim strips and mantle augment the contemporary look.
The pre-existing hole over the entryway now welcomes a pneumatic vacuum elevator. The railing has been modified to make room.
This is another view of the elevator taken from the second floor dining area. Continuing up the elevator from here lets the rider out in the hallway near the master bedroom on the third floor.
Uninspired ground-level kitchen cabinetry becomes a stylish workstation with a new USB outlet, additional storage space, and a new window cutout.
The kitchen has been demoed down to the studs. We’ve updated the flooring, windows, and cabinets, and converted the entrance to French doors. We also installed a new backsplash of 1’x2’ porcelain tile, new recessed can lights, under-cabinet lights, and a GFCI outlet on the island.
The new workstation, countertops, and island sport 3 cm Titanium Granite, the latter of which is a striking streaked slab the clients hand-picked themselves.
Carpeted stairs present a fall hazard and some clients find them outdated. New hardwood stairs with white-painted risers and stained wood treads look very elegant and provide the stark color contrast that can help prevent missteps, an aging in place design technique.
A rarely used but well-lit Whirlpool bathtub becomes a universal-design, walk-in shower with generous bench, grab bars, and handheld shower. The larger vanity has also been remodeled with cabinetry leveled off for cleaner lines, and replaced.
The smaller vanity in the corner has also been redone with the sink replaced and new cabinetry added. What had been the shower is now a new storage closet.
In another view of the new shower you may note the shower niche, staggered tile walls, hexagonal tile floor, and opaque window instead of the dated “ice block” window.
Project Highlights
- Installing the new elevator was a labor-intensive undertaking. We had to reframe the floor and ceiling between the second and third stories, replacing beams and other supports that had previously transversed there. But the owners were delighted with the finished product, which won a Chrysalis Award for Remodeling Excellence in 2019.
- The exterior of the house at the kitchen had had bad stucco installed that let in water, termites, and other damaging factors that we had to repair.
- To place the TV over the fireplace, we added blocking in the walls to which we could attach the mount so that it was secure and ran the cables to preserve the pristine look of the setting.
- The homeowners got a preview of how the new, open-concept kitchen would look thanks to the 3D virtual software we employed in the design. We took out a wall and installed a beam in the ceiling, allowing an uninterrupted view from one end of the second floor to the other.
- It’s not pictured, but to resolve the problem of poor storage in the master bedroom, we took the front walls off of the room’s two small closets and built new, tall custom storage cabinets and drawers in the same spaces.
