Greenlake Bungalow Remodel

We were first introduced to the homeowner of this beautiful 1921 craftsman home several years before construction started. The home was in dire need of maintenance that had been deferred over the years. It was extremely important to the homeowner to restore the homes classic style and charm instead of having it torn down and built new as most of her neighbors opted to do. She also knew she needed to customize her home to meet her needs after going through multiple knee surgeries and caring for her ailing mother. Reducing her use of stairs was extremely important.

Challenges:

With her main living space, laundry facilities and outdoor garbage and recycling on all different levels of the home, this posed a challenge. Our original plan was not to include the laundry facilities in the kitchen but rather create a dumbwaiter that she could use to transport her laundry from the main floor to the basement. However, due to budget constraints, a dumbwaiter was not going to work. Another challenge that we faced was finding a way to conceal her garbage and recycling bins and ensure that the neighborhood racoons would not have access to them, causing mess for her to clean up.

Solutions:

Since we were in the process of remodeling her kitchen space, we were able to utilize additional square footage from an existing back porch area to enlarge the kitchen space. This expansion not only enhanced the kitchen overall but also provided us the ability to bring her laundry facility into that same space, as well as adding a covered area tucked away at ground level to store her garbage and recycling where it would be free from the local racoons. This ultimately illuminated her need to access the basement. We worked as a team to come up with an alternative to the dumbwaiter. After much thought, we created an exterior locked door that connects to an interior kitchen cabinet, making it easy for her to bring groceries inside and take garbage outside without having to haul these items up and down a steep set of stairs.