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INTRODUCTION
SHORTCOMINGS &
CORRECTIONS
THE CHANGES
DESIGNER &
CONTRACTOR
FINALLY...
FLOORPLANS
SOURCES
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| The original living room (inset) was
dark, and a fireplace blocked much of its spectacular water view. Replacing the fireplace with a patio door and
painting the beamed ceiling white made the remodeled room (above right) bright and open. |
Jayne and Gene knew they would
have to remodel – not only to make a home for themselves and their 9-year-old daughter, but also to correct some
serious shortcomings in the house itself.
In spite of the spectacular setting,
the 1960 floor plan followed a plain-vanilla ranch formula. A fireplace sat squarely centered across the living
room's water view. The three bedrooms, clustered together at one end of the house, shared a single bath. The kitchen,
like the rest of the house, was 35 years old and showed its age.
Jayne and Gene's opinions differed, however, on how far the change should go. Jayne envisioned transforming the
house into a Craftsman bungalow. Her husband was skeptical. "We had a little rambler here," he says.
"I thought we'd just make it bigger." As he put it to his wife and others, "You can't turn an apple
into an orange."
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| The new dining room (above left)
is more formal than the original dining area (inset) but is open to both the kitchen and living room. |
To settle the matter, the Michaelsons consulted Bret Drager, a Tacoma architect and close friend. After touring
a nearby Craftsman house that the couple admired, Drager told them, "We can re-create this house exactly –
if you really want that – but maybe there's a way to save more of what you have here."
Charged with adding a master bedroom suite, new kitchen, and a formal dining area, Drager devised a plan that preserved
the house's basic structure, while overlaying it with enough Craftsman-influenced elements to give it a new identity. |