Right after my wife and I closed on a small house in our suburban neighborhood, we realized that we were about to embark on a journey through Cincinnati home renovation that would become a topic in our lives for the next several years.
We know many neighbors who have been involved in Cincinnati home improvement but did not ever believe that we would join the ranks of the people who have experienced Cincinnati home remodeling, up close and personal.
While the topic certainly is stirring the think about, it can be daunting in its task list and expertise level required to pull off a project that you can be proud of.
The project began with the selection of an architect.
That first meeting went well and was obviously something that the gentleman that we were about to select had conducted many times before.
He spent quite a bit of time asking about our tastes and our lifestyles.
We were impressed that he seemed to grasp the concept of our small family needing open spaces and lots of open flow to the house.
We wanted to be able to move easily from room to room and to allow us to be with our kids constantly, even though they may be doing something completely separate from us.
He listened and followed our lead in developing a concept that we knew would work almost from the beginning.
His first major task was the design of a new family room, master bedroom, master bathroom and a sitting area located to the rear of the dining room.
This would be all new construction and would allow our family to be able to move freely about the home while allowing us to visually see each other from just about every angle on the downstairs floors, a great concept.
One of the most interesting ideas he had was to add a rear staircase to the house that would lead directly to the master bedroom.
This key idea gave the house the flow we were looking for, completing the traffic pattern from the front entry door, up the stairs to the bedroom, down the hallway into the master bedroom and then right back into the family room.
It seemed perfect.
With just a handful of small changes, we had a design that everyone liked and that we could begin to build a project around.
Every planning session has its share of hiccups and ours was no exception.
We overlooked something that we regret to this day that involved the smaller bedroom and a closet.
It turns out that we had agreed to allow the builders to block a chimney flue to allow a closet to be built in the upstairs bedroom.
The existing flue would heat up too much and would run the possibility of ruining clothes in a closet due to the heat.
We agreed because it made great sense at the time.
We soon cake to realize that the decision we made had meant that we would need to cutoff the downstairs fireplace completely and never be able to use it again.
We know many neighbors who have been involved in Cincinnati home improvement but did not ever believe that we would join the ranks of the people who have experienced Cincinnati home remodeling, up close and personal.
While the topic certainly is stirring the think about, it can be daunting in its task list and expertise level required to pull off a project that you can be proud of.
The project began with the selection of an architect.
That first meeting went well and was obviously something that the gentleman that we were about to select had conducted many times before.
He spent quite a bit of time asking about our tastes and our lifestyles.
We were impressed that he seemed to grasp the concept of our small family needing open spaces and lots of open flow to the house.
We wanted to be able to move easily from room to room and to allow us to be with our kids constantly, even though they may be doing something completely separate from us.
He listened and followed our lead in developing a concept that we knew would work almost from the beginning.
His first major task was the design of a new family room, master bedroom, master bathroom and a sitting area located to the rear of the dining room.
This would be all new construction and would allow our family to be able to move freely about the home while allowing us to visually see each other from just about every angle on the downstairs floors, a great concept.
One of the most interesting ideas he had was to add a rear staircase to the house that would lead directly to the master bedroom.
This key idea gave the house the flow we were looking for, completing the traffic pattern from the front entry door, up the stairs to the bedroom, down the hallway into the master bedroom and then right back into the family room.
It seemed perfect.
With just a handful of small changes, we had a design that everyone liked and that we could begin to build a project around.
Every planning session has its share of hiccups and ours was no exception.
We overlooked something that we regret to this day that involved the smaller bedroom and a closet.
It turns out that we had agreed to allow the builders to block a chimney flue to allow a closet to be built in the upstairs bedroom.
The existing flue would heat up too much and would run the possibility of ruining clothes in a closet due to the heat.
We agreed because it made great sense at the time.
We soon cake to realize that the decision we made had meant that we would need to cutoff the downstairs fireplace completely and never be able to use it again.
SHARE
