Sandy meet Layne. Layne meet Sandy.

At the very beginning of this we met with Sandra Hatch (the architect Doug Rosenbaum had recommended), and we met with Layne Kimball of First Western Construction (who had dug out every basement of anyone I had met that had dug out a basement).  But I'm having troubles remembering who we met with first.

But I do remember I checked out a couple different architects before we chose Sandra.  

My friend Cori had recommended I speak with Annie at Renovation Design Group.  I liked her immediately.  Annie and I spoke the same language.  She seemed to know intrinsically what I wanted.  I was confident she could make the whole renovation happen.  But their bid price reflected that they had an attractive office and a large staff that they were paying for.  And although her plans seemed as though they would include every last detail necessary to leave you with a beautifully finished home, I got the idea that they wanted you to choose from their limited finishes at the end, otherwise you'd be paying an arm and a leg for any creativity in the details I personally took so much pleasure in affecting.  I needed to have a little more control.  And extra costs you weren't budgeting for right at the end of the project, was the last thing I wanted to be dealing with.

  I also met with architect Bill Arthur.  I am trying to remember who recommended him to me.  Maybe Doug did as well.  He is also on the board of my friend Stephen Brown's dance company.  In any case, very nice guy, I have seen a couple of his finished projects in the Avenues and they look like tasteful smart additions to our typically tiny Avenues homes.  

But Sandra Hatch seemed she would best be able to give us a plan that would remain respectful to the period of the house & the spirit of the home.  And she works alone, so she was more cost-effective for us than R.D.G.

We started out with a lot of talking.  I didn't seem able to express myself as well to her as I did to Annie.  But she listened, and then she'd bring back these beautiful hand drawn plans, that whether they were what I wanted or not really won me over.  Her drawings are beautiful.

It took a lot more drafts to get to a plan that we felt comfortable with than I expected it would.  When she came over with the first draft, I was so ridiculously excited.  I honestly nearly cried because I had thought I had communicated our needs so clearly and she had tried to solve our space issues by bringing us a plan that seemed to match a house she had done previously with Doug, that (as happens in the Avenues) had the exact layout as our home.     

I was disappointed.  But she didn't seem worried.  She said it was only a first draft and that we would have many more.  She had also really avoided the idea of a basement initially because she had never done a dug-out basement under a house that did not have one.  It seemed expensive and risky.  She was right.  She warned us that the cost of the excavation and the finishing would add up to exceed the cost of new construction on the top or back of the house.

Early on we scheduled a meeting between her and Layne.  She needed to meet the man that had been digging out basements under existing structures for over 40 years.  She needed to hear his methods and feel they were sound.  

They met, and the meeting went really well.   If Layne is anything, he is careful.  She would not have to worry about a cave-in, and his methods made sense to her.  We also met with (pretty much) Layne's only competitor in the Salt Lake Valley, Ivo Archuleta.  She listened to his methods as well (relatively similar).  The two meetings seemed to convince Sandy that if a basement was what we really wanted she felt confident that we could make it happen.  But she admittedly preferred First Western Construction.  They later, separately both voiced respect for the way the other worked/communicated.  

Once we had pinned down the fact we were going down, and then eventually going up as well, STAIRS became our main issue.   We had a set of existing stairs in each direction, but they were steep and old and in order to make them meet current code requirements we would have to re-do them both.  And renovated, they would not fit in the same footprint.  I think the stairs gave us the most trouble.  I was very specific about not wanting to change anything in the layout of the front half of the house.  That really limited us.  For a while it seemed I was trying out different placement ideas on tracing paper, graph paper, scratch paper... every spare moment I had (which pre-Wyatt, seemed to be a lot more spare moments).  

After Sandy embraced the basement she brought us some plans with a bedroom, a wash/storage room and a large family room downstairs.  But we were adamant about 'living space' (cooking, wash and kids studying/playing) on the main floor and sleeping quarters all below.  We wanted three bedrooms, a full bath and an office all downstairs.  It was a tall order, especially with the huge foundation of the fireplace under the living room and the need for a mechanical room that could accommodate  furnace, water heater and sewer ejector pump.  Because we didn't have a basement, our ancient sewer line was above the potential basement's ground level so we would have to get permission for an electric sewage ejector pump.  BUMMER!  And YUCKY!  I remember being warned 'You just have to remember that if the electricity goes out, no one should use the basement bathroom.  Or you may flood...'

We didn't have the final basement drawings in place.  But we gave First Western Construction the job.   Layne had told us that it would be anywhere between $40-75 a square foot to excavate and leave us with an unfinished basement.  Of course, when the bid came around, due to the age of our home, the old sandstone foundation with weak mortar, three windows on the West side of the house, of course we were on the expensive end of that spectrum.  I was seriously hopeful that we'd get it dug out for between $45-50,000, and this unfinished basement was going to cost us just under 70 grand!

I prayed the quality of the future space would not feel like a dark and gloomy basement.  I would just cry if I sunk that amount of Walter's hard earned money into a creating a dark and gloomy hole for my little family to sleep in.

do we need an architect?

In May of 2006 we adopted a dog.  She was a beauty, sweet with the baby and a real desire to please.  She was training well, v. obedient.  Walter and I agreed our family was growing.  Between the dog and our baby quickly becoming a toddler, our enclosed back yard was more important to us than ever.  

We had felt a little crowded in our home since we moved in 6 month earlier.   By summer we were in full discussion mode about what to do to about this.  

This in itself was a funny process.  Because Walter owned and had lived in (on & off) the house for the last 17 years, and I had been here 6 months.  He called it 'our home.'  But regardless of how much I believed him, I still really felt like it was his and that I should be as respectful as I could be about any drastic changes.  So I was really wanting his opinions, his dreams, his desires of change or transformation for his home.  This of course was in contrast to my already hugely developed ideas of where we might go with this house.  

Walter had already considered some improvements over the years.  

He has always been 'the cook'.  Whether it be necessity or because he really enjoys it, the kitchen is his domain.  The cook, and as unfair as it is, he is also the cleaning crew.  He cooks a lovely meal, then is also the one that cannot tolerate leaving the kitchen messy for the next morning, meal or moment.  And so when we entertained, after dinner I was in the dining room with our guests, while Walter was back in our tiny counter-shy kitchen cleaning up. 

It really bugged me.  I wanted him out there with the rest of us.  But he couldn't leave it alone, and there was no room for us to join him.  

It really was too small to leave messy.  If you left a stack of dirty dishes or pots or pans anywhere you used every bit of prep space we had.  No room for dessert preparations, certainly no room for a cereal bowl the following morning.  We even dried our clean dishes in a drying rack that sat down inside one of the two sinks.  It was high priority to create a kitchen that had storage, counter space, and space for kids and/or guests to join the Cook in the kitchen.  Not leave him back there to himself. 

He had considered opening up the kitchen into the adjacent bedroom long before all this.  It was an odd place for a bedroom, right off the kitchen.  But then you would lose a bedroom.  They always had used the back add-on room (which I call the 'family room') as a master bedroom.  It was a nice sized space, but a midnight trek to the bathroom meant you  either went through the smaller bedroom or around and through the kitchen, the dining room and the guest bedroom.  

So he also had hopes to reconnect the upstairs apartment to the house.  Move the sleeping space upstairs.  But it seemed almost too luxurious.  That apartment's rent was such a nice consistent contributer to the mortgage.  Ahhh, dilemnas!

I am a "in the closet" designer/decorater/architect.  I have no formal education unless you count the year of textile design classes I took at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in NYC just before our daughter was born.  I also worked 6 years for the Pottery Barn first in SLC, then in San Francisco and finally at the SoHo store in Manhattan.  My childhood was full of drawings, fashion and floor plans.  But my scholarship money came from the University of Utah ballet department, so that is what my BFA is in... ballet.  I follow HGTV, all the DIY magazines, the home decor retailers with a quiet desire to be a part of the club.  To create my own fabrics, furniture, decorative accessories, stationary and cards would be a dream.  But that is probably another blog.

So let's just say I was full of ideas. 

We refinanced the house in July for a sum of money we thought we cover the renovation.  At least the first major portion of it.  Future garage with loft space above can wait.  Even the master bedroom suite upstairs could wait.  Our goal was to make our house function for our immediate family and our current needs.

I began having discussions with my Block's 'Contractor Extraordinaire' Doug Rosenbaum.  He specializes in gorgeous historically respectful renovation with beautiful attention to detail, here in the Avenues.  He did the house to our right and he did the house to our left.  And my mother-in-law used him for handyman jobs on our home while Walter lived in California and New York.  

I trust Doug.  He loves to talk.  But he also listens and he is really great for advice.  We considered him to general our future projects.  The first major advice he gave us was, "Get an Architect!"

I thought we didn't need one.  I thought with all my ideas and attention to detail we'd be fine without drawings.  (Little did I know.  I was so naive and over confident.)  

"How hard can it be?   I've been drawing floor plans my whole life."  But I was nervous about the structural stuff, the stuff requiring math.  

Not really interested in blowing something like that.

So we contacted architect Sandra Hatch at Doug's recommendation.

 

and so it begins...

This blog is going to be about our home.  It's going to be about our family living in our home, growing in our home and the way our home changes as we adjust to that growth.  It's a work in progress.

Lots of people near and dear to us have been asking to see pictures our progress with this sweet little home.  I felt it long past time to do a little documentation of the huge changes we've had over the 18 months. 

So where do we begin?

We left Brooklyn and moved into Walter's little house in January 2006.  He bought it in 1989 while attending grad. school, lived in it with his first wife, and rented it out after their divorce.

Now it's our "Victorian Eclectic" one story house, 871 E. Second Avenue.

Here's some background that I got from the local Heritage Society...

The house was built in 1899 by Mrs. Rachel McMasters, a real estate developer who built several houses in the Avenues.  Upon it's completion she sold it to Willard F. Smith.  

The 1899 directory lists him as a partner in the Smith & Free Company "Mines and Mining".  

In 1900 he sold the house to Richard W. Sampson who was then  bookkeeper.  Later, according to the Salt Lake City directories, he bacome involved in 'mining.'  He lived in the house until 1909, but owned it until 1924 when he sold it to John W. Alford.  

According to his obituary, he was a "well known Salt Lake City clothing salesman."  He was born July 2, 1873, in Salt Lake City, son John and Margaret Anderson Alford.  He graduated fro, the University of Utah in 1892 and spent the rest of his life in the clothing business.  He began at ZCMI, went to work for J.P. Gardner, and then with his brother R.G. Alford, operated Alford Brothers.  Following hs death in 1943 ownership passed to his wife, Ruby Venice Pike Alford.  In 1945 she sold the house to Noel E. Pool.   

When Walter moved in he lived in the 1334 square feet of the main level.  The attic had been blocked from the inside and converted to a 560 sq. ft. 1 bedroom apartment (during the depression?) with a staircase out on the westside of the house and a back enterance with a balcony patio.  The rentsl unit was great for him to help make the mortgage.  He allows had renters upstairs.

There were also stairs from the kitchen that led down to a basement mechanical room with old brick walls (alledgedly 400 sq.ft. though I can't imagine it) and it was surrounded by a dirt shelf all the way round, out to the sandstone foundation.  The shelf had anywhere from 18" to 3 feet of air between it and the floor joists above.

So in a 1997 appraisal it was listed as a brick house (3 bedrooms, 2 full baths and a fire place) with a total 2294 sq. ft.  "Avenues home in great location, upstairs apt. or could convert to single fam two story.  Good condition." 

Unfortunately for us, those three bedrooms where not all excessible from the first floor.  And we were the kind of family that needed a guest room, an office and a larger kitchen (well, at least more counter space).  When we moved in we were renting the upstairs to Walter's sister as an office space and were grateful for the additional income that rent brought in.  So up wasn't the immediate answer for more space.

We have about a 10th of an acre ( 33 x 155 ft.)  In the back there's an old wood garage built in the 30ies that has a major tilt to it.  And someone had added on a washroom and a family room to the back of the house at some point.   So we felt an add-on in the back would eat up any backyard that remained.  We thought to the future and the definite need for a backyard for our daughter and our dog.  

So, we didn't want to go up, yet... and we didn't want to go out back... and the front of the house had to remain the same, as we lived in a historical neighborhood... Maybe we could go down?

I had had basement bedrooms since I was 12 growing up.  It was nice and dark and cozy in the basement.  I've always been a sound sleeper.  It was warm in the Winter and cool in the Summer.  My parents had stuck all the girls down in the basement by our teens.  It gave them a little space from us.  My sisters felt free to run around in their undies down there, shave their legs wherever.  It was our space.  

I liked that idea.  Future noisy teenagers tucked away, downstairs and when we finally needed our privacy we could reconnect the attic space to the house for an amazing master suite.  The main level would become our living space.  

Living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, wash/mudroom, office and a guestroom with it's own full bathroom.  Sounds like a plan.