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| Before |
We moved into our house in 1990. It was a crappy little 1950s tract house with stupid little rooms—1,500 square feet; four "bedrooms" (one of which was half of the garage, shoddily converted). The kitchen: forget it. The only room I actually liked was the living room ☟.
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| Before |
Over the years we occasionally pondered the idea of remodeling. At one point I went so far as to ask my friend Bob, a contractor, if he could recommend an architect, and without hesitation he suggested a retired one, Boris "Bob" Jacoubowsky. There, however, it rested.
Until one rainy day in 2010, when the roof started to leak.
And so we called Bob J. And the ball started to roll—and didn't stop until December 2012, when we found ourselves moving into a light-filled house full of classy materials (the woods alone fill me with joy: hickory and bamboo flooring, cherry shelves, walnut mantel, fir doors and window frames). With no small thanks to my friend Bob, whose skills as a contractor I now have proof of.
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| After |
When we started the process, people responded in one of two ways: "Oh, lucky you! I love interior design!" or "Oh, you poor things. I hope your marriage survives." In fact, it ended up being somewhere in between. It was never exactly
fun—the choices could be overwhelm-ing—but fortunately we saw eye to eye on virtually every decision, so the marriage did just fine. (Me, I'm convinced our taking up separate residences for the year of construction helped immensely as well.)
In the end, the big choices, such as kitchen counter and cabinets, were suprisingly easy. It was little things like drawer pulls that tripped us up. As for tile, we haunted the local tile store, looking, looking; each time, our vision got infinitesimally more focused, until finally,
many visits later, we were able to see just what we wanted. And somehow, when it came to the carpet for the upstairs loft, I managed to select
the most expensive New Zealand wool in the carpet store: it was a no-brainer!
And now, we live in a gorgeous house. As not just a few random strangers have commented, it's probably the most beautiful house in our little community of 2,000. I call it my grown-up house.
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