Before

Dave and Nancy contacted Celeste in July of 2008 about building an addition to their 100 year-old home in John’s Landing. Celeste came to the house and spoke about the options for a 200-300 square foot guest suite/office addition. Although Dave and Nancy loved the concepts, they realized they just didn’t have the funds for a full blown addition.

What would normally be the end of the architect–client relationship grew into a problem-solving project that left Dave and Nancy with more space and a new outlook for their home. Instead of walking away, Celeste evaluated their needs and suggested solutions that wouldn’t increase the footprint of the home, but make it more useful.

Dave says, “Celeste did not just do what we said, she looked beyond to what we were specifically after. She had an idea of the values we had, helped us understand our requirements and found potential for the project we hadn’t even considered. We knew we wanted more storage, but she pushed us further, ‘storage for what?’. She made the most effective use of the budget we had.”

After

Some immediate solutions that Celeste and the couple collaborated on included:

• The installation of a tankless water heater

• The use of benches with a built-in storage area

• Reconfiguring the laundry room to provide more functional space and custom cabinets designed specifically to meet their storage needs. »

• A series of energy-efficient upgrades

Dave says, “We have been in the home for many years. From day one we knew we wanted to make changes, but we just did not know where to begin…Celeste helped us get over the hump and see how. It shows that her primary goal was giving us something useful, not just undertaking a huge project. We’re very happy with how much value we got from our consultations with her.”

Not only did Dave and Nancy solve a handful of immediate problems, but they got the tools they needed to solve other spatial issues in their home.