Sunset Lake Boulevard

Silver lining Renovation

Renovation Details:
-House built 1950’s
-1650 square feet.
-changed from 2br/1ba to 3br/2ba without addition
-All new electrical/hvac/windows
-Ikea kitchen with customized ‘hacks’ like built in bar cabinet
-customized closet/bookshelves to fit pullout couch- triples as play room/tv room/guest room.

Our firstborn was born with only half of a heart and would need three open heart surgeries within the first few years of life. After doing research and finding out that long-term survival chances were better at sea level, we made the decision to leave Denver and move to Michigan where we had friends/family.

Having always loved design, furniture, and architecture it was a bucket list dream to gut a house and renovate. We took all of our profits from our Denver house sale and poured it into a 1950’s ranch.

In a neighborhood where people where tearing down nice houses to build even bigger houses 2-5 times the size of ours, we committed to keeping a small footprint and re-using what we could from the house (which was not much…a few windows/doors/roof). I drew out the new interior and exterior design on some scrap paper, and my husband did a rendering in sketchup for the contractor.

We put the cabinets together ourselves for our Ikea kitchen. We tried to save money where we could and used semihandmade fronts in many of the rooms and bathrooms. We did a mix of high and low for finishes budget for budget purposes.

My husband is a lover of modern minimalism and I’m a lover of modern eclectic maximalism…which I reign in for the sake of our marriage. Over the next few years, we finished the inside with a mix of vintage, repurposed, and custom furniture designed by me and made by local craftsman (walnut dining table/tiled tv room credenza).

While there were many design features we wanted to do, we nixed them and we stayed under $140/square foot. I justified the money by saying that if I ever opened my own interior design company, I could use my house as my portfolio…never really thinking that I would actually start a business, because I had spent so much time in school to become a nurse anesthesiologist.

A bad job situation here made it an easy decision to go part time and spend other time doing what I love. After working with a builder on some projects, I opened up Swatts & Co Design Studio…we went from a 40% chance of our daughter dying before the age of 4, to having a thriving and active 5yo along with the chance to work together doing something we love.