The Wow Moment The house was in some disrepair. The front steps pitched at a steep grade and had no railings; the furnace had a broken heat exchanger and was too big for the house; the entire HVAC system needed replacing; the floor plan was awkward — you had to walk through a bedroom to get to the back deck; two narrow, deep closets were basically unusable; and the small kitchen had three entry doors. It seemed that nobody used the front door, and the side entrance took visitors through a laundry room, then into the kitchen. There was a “carbuncle” of white siding on one corner of the house. They loved the neighborhood, says Candace, but “the house was ugly and not desirable. Dave made it usable.”
Once the couple headed back to Texas, the project took off. First there was an asbestos abatement before QDC crews could work. When that was clear, the crew began everywhere all at once, working inside or out based on the weather, because they didn’t have to worry about the homeowners’ schedule.
Peggy sent detailed e-mails and photos at least twice a week. There were a few nasty surprises, such as the rotted wood found in the carport doorway into the kitchen, an exterior porch wall with no footing, and damage from a leak caused by the previous owner’s icemaker.
But there were a few nice surprises, as well: Under the vinyl kitchen floor was heart pine, which QDC saved for the couple’s future use, and David discovered that the house — which had been the Baptist church’s parsonage — was on the state’s historic register, so there was a renovation tax credit.
The kitchen, although it had been remodeled in 1996, was the main stage for renovation. Candace and Larry like to cook and to entertain family and students. “We wanted a flexible space,” says Candace, and they didn’t like the idea of an “older-style kitchen with dark or white cabinets all in the same tone.” The new maple Show Place cabinets (from QDC’s own cabinet division) are a medium tone, and there’s a good mix of colors, textures, and patterns in the room.
Candace originally wanted the kitchen in the back of the house, in place of the center bedroom. David talked her out of it. “You don’t want to split your sleeping quarters,” he told her. “You want to keep social centers together.” Losing the small, third bedroom connected to the back of the kitchen was the answer. “It just kind of gelled from there.”
Breaking down the walls between those rooms was key, agrees Brad Williams, the assistant carpenter on the job. The walls were load bearing, and the attic space above is used as a living space. “We had to do our load calculations for two structural beams that we mounted into the ceiling system,” says David. They built temporary walls outside the area where they were placing the new beams in the ceiling; then they knocked down the original wall. After they secured the ceiling joists with the hangers, they took down the temporary walls. That’s when they realized how expansive the space was. “There are phases in a project when you go, ‘Wow,’” Williams says. “Once the beam was in the ceiling and the wall between the kitchen and bedroom was gone, it was a ‘wow’ moment.”