Our House #1

In October of 2004 we purchased a 1927 colonial on Winfield Road in Irondequoit New York- not too far from the shore of lake Ontario. We worked really hard on making it a home for ourselves and Asher, and I thought that I would like to preserve as much of the work and the change as possible, so I created a page of our house as it evolved in the 5 years we lived there. This way it is preserved for all of us, as we were always changing something, either with paint or mass construction. A lot of people would ask us about what we were doing, or how we did it within the idea of style. We are homebodies, and the space that we live in is very important to us. Not in a bragging sense, more in a sense of how our space is an extension of our style and our personalities. It's important as Chris and I have always wanted a "home", and with Asher even more so. In the summer of 2009 we put our house up for sale unexpectedly (as we were not planning to sell for at least another year)- but the house sold in 9 days. Doesn't it always happen that way when you don't expect it? We lived there for exactly 5 years, moving in October of 2009- but it will always be our first real home.

EXTERIOR

Front & Back: We re-sided the back "bump-out" to use the siding to cover where the side (driveway side) kitchen window was, and constantly planted and changed the flowers and bushes. We had just started taking the tall taller evergreens down, set some side stones, and planted some more daylillies.

Patio and Garden: We Removed bushes along the fence and behind the patio, tilled and re-seeded the back near the garage, removed hundreds of pounds of concrete from old town of Irondequoit walkway from the back yard, created a small BBQ area, planted and moved multiple vegetations. We improved adding a little bit every year. Over time we had a small brown rabbit, lots of squirrels, a few spiders, chipmunks, butterflies, hummingbirds, cardinals and other various birds.

INTERIOR- 1st Floor (Basement [below w/1/2 bath] Kitchen, Living Room, Dining Room, Sun Room)

Basement, Side door, Front door and Living room: We lit and painted the basement, painted and re-finished the side door, added living room carpet, living room furniture and flat screen #1 (42" plasma) and then #2 (47" LCD) (with 4 videogame consoles hooked up- Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, and a Nintedo 64), added drapery, painted the brickwork to the fireplace, and cleaned and polished woodwork.

The Kitchen: This was gutted and remodeled (mostly by us) 2 months after moving in, these are before , during and after pictures. We removed both windows, kept one, and took out everything walls-flooring-ceiling-plumbing. There was 1.5 tons of debris, and it took us (with professional help on a few things) 4 months. It took another 3 before the shelving, exterior siding, and windows were finished. We added a wrap around counter, shelving, lighting, an archway replaced the swinging door, a lot of extra cabinetry, dishwasher, and slate floor with glass accents. For good measure we also faux finished the side entrance (which leads to the kitchen) and revamped the pantry.

The Dining room and Sun room: The dining room door and wall were removed, and a wrap around counter added to open up the dining room, repainted the dining room, painted the paneling in the sun room, drapery, table re-finishing . The sun room eventually became Alan's work studio, after first being a reading room.

INTERIOR- 2nd Floor (3 bedrooms, full bath, attic access)

Bathroom, Asher's room, Guest room, and the Master bedroom (Which contains the access to the studio/attic). Asher's room used to be the guest room, but in the Spring of 2007 we moved him to the larger room and remodeled all three rooms at the same time. In 2008, he got a new unfinished dresser that we stained and poly'd, and we created a tent encampment for his bed. Eventually he graduated to a traditional bed and we moved a bit so he could have more play space. In the master bedroom we cut our headboard in half, shelved and painted our closet, refinished a trunk, repainted everything, and brought almost all of our books in as a library. Then we put the 42" plasma up there (which bordered on the ridiculous). We carpeted the stairs and carpeted the "new" guest room (formerly Asher's first room), added drapery, and polished the woodwork. The bathroom remodel took place in March 2008. Again we gutted it, and found papers as insulation dating to 1937 (we framed one page for the bathroom). We tiled the tub area, re-tiled the floor and added new fixtures and an inset storage cabinet.

INTERIOR- 3rd Floor (Finished attic and storage, studio)

Attic: The attic was a finished space that was first used as our painting & design studio. We moved the studios in the summer of 2009. Alan's studio was mostly down in the sun room, and Christie's work studio was half of the attic. The other half is a sitting and lounging area. On the way up- the stairs were loaded with old artwork..

Asher Pictures House #1 House #2