What makes a perfectly sane woman with a growing family take on a whole-house, eight-month, dust- and dirt-filled renovation? Three little words: my forever house. I’m Pamela Porter, and this is the story of my home.
We have always loved old houses. When we found this one, we couldn’t resist the setting, the modest face it presented to the street, and its ample square footage (2,900). And with houses, as they say, location is everything. That was the clencher. For my husband, Lee Bissmeyer, and me, the 1923 Craftsman bungalow on an oak-filled lot next to one of Des Moines’ city parks was a house we knew we could live in forever. Though well built, the house had been renovated in the 1980s and needed a major overhaul. Crazy as it sounds, with a toddler and a cocker spaniel in tow and another baby on the way, we started tearing down the walls around us. We wanted to maintain the house’s Craftsman style but give it a lighter look. To do that, we used oak trim and added to the original oak floors and introduced white by way of painted pillars, a hutch in the kitchen, and a splash of subway tile on the kitchen walls and island.
WHAT I LEARNED: An open floor plan works in an old house, too. To open up the first floor, we revamped the kitchen and removed three sets of walls, replacing them with kneewalls topped with Craftsman-style pillars. We figured, let’s just take the plunge and do it.
We were determined to create a family room that maximized our view of the park. A previous addition must have been built with this same intent, but it was a small room with a stucco exterior that didn’t seem to suit the overall Craftsman aesthetic of the house. So we took a big breath and tore the old family room addition down, right to its cement slab, and started over. We built an exterior wall lined with large windows. We included a new gas fireplace and made it feel old by using a reclaimed barn beam as a mantel and a piece of redstone as the hearth. Plus, we put old-fashioned penny tile around the firebox. Now, we absolutely love—and live—in this room.
WHAT I LEARNED: A renovation can virtually be done with one-shop—if not one-stop—shopping. From windows to countertops to flooring, my local Home Depot had all the right products, including some great special orders. It was really a “design-it-yourself” partnership. I couldn’t have come up with my kitchen, for example, without them.
When I think back over the whole transformation, I realize it was an awkward second-floor room that started it all. I called it the slant room—it was this space with a steeply sloped ceiling and no windows, even though the room was at the back of the house. It drove me crazy that you couldn’t look outside. So when we tore the old family room addition down, we added a second-story shed dormer with windows facing the yard. It makes a beautiful master bedroom suite. And now the entire back of the house feels right: When you’re inside you can enjoy the yard and park and the light streaming into the bedroom, and when you’re outside, there’s a nice terrace for dining and entertaining.
WHAT I LEARNED: Every project is always going to grow, no matter how big or small. You can be sure that it’ll take a bit longer and cost a bit more—once you dig into a room, you’ll have to bring everything up to code and you’ll find more things to do than you anticipated. Just try to see through the sawdust and remind yourself there’s an end in sight.
