McKenzie Lake Full Renovation
Many renovations are only one room or floor at a time and others involve the entire house. This one was the latter, plus an addition to make the main floor more open and spacious, with room for a larger kitchen and dining.
The time for finalizing all of the client requirements, planning out the space, selecting everything, designing and drafting all of the drawings did not follow the typical order and became more of a design-build; the majority of the areas were being designed while construction was happening. The new floor layouts were designed before full construction began (a.k.a. full gutting) and the permit drawings were completed, but all of the other designing and drawings came through during the construction. This is not my typical way of working, yet despite that challenge, I do think the home is cohesive and has met my clients needs well.
Every aspect of this house, from the built-ins to cabinets to layouts of tile to closet systems were all intricately designed and the trades and contractors built everything very well.
Here is a condensed version of the project:
Preliminary project info:
Family home, space for relaxing, connecting, reading, and storage. They wanted to give each of the older kids input into their bedrooms, particularly for those who were heavy readers.
Overall style was a mix of traditional with modern, glam.
During the space planning portion, working on the interior and exterior in tandem, and attempting to make a grander entryway, this led to exploring moving the front door to the left, removing the bay window, and trying to open up the interior walls for that key view.
Upon some demo and consulting with the structural engineer, we had to ditch that idea and stick with the original front door location. However, there were still walls that we were able to cut back to enlarge the opening into the living/kitchen/dining with some clever beams. As mentioned, adding paneling made the entryway have the glam and wow factor my client was looking for.
Still, the tight front door and closet combo and how disjointed it was from the mudroom area kept nagging at me, so I proposed removing the closet, moving the garage entry door over to the right, creating a floor where that door was, and creating a hallway connecting the two areas. My client loved the idea!
Existing main floor plan New main floor plan
Existing second floor plan New second floor plan
Before and after of the entryway. You can see the new hallway where the closet used to be.
Details of needs/wants and some of the solutions:
My client wanted a grander entryway to maximize the view through the house towards the back windows facing the river valley, foothills, and mountains.
The back windows on the main floor were widened as large as possible with the openings on the base of the window to not block the views
How is that for a view?!
Coffered ceilings:
I'm quite pleased with my solution of using the large beams to divide the spaces up and create a detailed frame to make the shallower coffers and not highlight the deep beams.
Two progress pics that show three beams and the coffers
A large island was also key with enough spots for the whole family to sit around, a lot of storage for the kitchen, hidden appliance garage, hidden access into the pantry and mudroom, and enough room for a 10-person table and a window seat with integrated beverage cooler.
Toe kick drawers, full-heigh cabinets, more shelving, and adding drawers wherever possible.
Clockwise from top left: Kitchen rangetop with custom metal hood and hidden doors into pantry. Wall oven, appliance garage, and paneled sub-zero. Appliance garage. Mixer lift in island. Shelving in pantry. In-progress cabinet construction showing toe-kick drawers. Window seat with more storage drawers.
Shoe storage:
In the mudroom the storage was a tall lazy-susan, another full shelving unit, and more in the basement and up in the master suite.
Shelving in mudroom, the lazy-susan (with moi), and a rotating shoe rack in the master closet.
The end function of the front room, previously the dining room, on the main floor changed a few times through the construction process:
It ended up becoming a library with a bookcase with ladder and some comfy chaise lounges to read on.
Before pic (when it was a dining room) and the newly created reading room
The master suite was in dire need of a rework to maximize those views again and a better setup for the walk-in closet. A breakfast bar was requested, an electric fireplace, 2 sinks, and the toilet in the ensuite had to be in its own room. My client desired to vault the ceiling in the master bedroom, but the cost was prohibitive.
The windows in the master and in the ensuite were widened. The tub was placed directly under the west window and the steam shower got a bench to allow for sitting facing the view.
There was an “office” type room that was attached to the master bedroom that was open to the foyer, so that ended up getting closed in and made into a better closet.
The ceiling was given a tray ceiling, cove lighting, and wallpaper to give the impression of detail without the cost of vaulting it.
From top left to right, row by row: Before pic looking into the open ensuite. Before pic looking west. The tub and vanity. The large picture window above the tub. The left-hand vanity reflecting part of the shower. The blue steam shower. Master bedroom tray ceiling with metallic wallpaper. Breakfast bar made to look like an armoire. Walk-in-Closet bench.
Not as much rework was requested in the other 4 bedrooms, other than 2 of them. One got 2 bookcases and a desk, plus a balcony because of the addition on the main floor, and the other bedroom directly under the addition in the basement got a mini extension to create a window seat with flanking bookcases.
First two pics are the second floor bedroom with the balcony, desk, and bookshelves. The right pic is of the basement bedroom window seat and shelves.
The two dated main bathrooms were given full showers and some fun finishes.
Before and after!
The laundry needed to be upstairs and they also did not want to see the doors to the laundry room.
We hid them within the paneling that was added to all of the walls in the entryway and gave them push open hardware.
Here's a short video of the stairwell up to the hallway showing the hidden laundry room doors and linen closet door.
Bright lighting and white walls were also requested due to an eye condition of the client.
Potlights and more potlights, cove lighting added, and a lot of dimmers.
The exterior got a huge update, which was first just going to be a new paint colour for the stucco, but due to a ton of water and mouse damage discovered, as well as the challenge of matching the texture of the stucco on the repairs and addition, Hardie Board and natural stone were installed instead.
Before and after
Here are some other photos of different areas of this home and some during construction:
Thanks for reading!
General Contractor: Meadow Sage Builders
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