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| Holli's Home Redesign - Before Talking the Talk and Walking The Walk – Again! Follow Regina Interior Decorator Holli Appelquist as she plans and executes her own home renovation By Holli Appelquist I feel like I’m in that 1980’s movie “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray. Just three short years after our last whole home renovation here I sit again planning our next one. In our 13-year marriage, my husband Barry and I have renovated or built 5 different homes. We hope this house will be our last! We feel we have finally purchased a home that will meet our needs well into the future. For the first time we will renovate this house without resale in mind. We’ll do what we really want without the price tag or resale appeal being our number one consideration. We’re looking forward to living in a home where we can plant a tree and actually live there long enough to watch it mature!
A hot real estate market in northwest Regina and our very specific requirements meant it took us a long time to find the right house. We waited for a house located in Lakewood on a bay with a good sized lot, main floor office off the entry, 3 spacious bedrooms, main floor laundry and adequate storage. We asked Century 21 Realtor and Lakewood resident Ryan Bibendorf to watch the market for us. If a listing came up meeting our requirements we wanted to know about it immediately. One chilly April day the call came and we quickly went for a look see. We bought the house within 12 hours of it being listed and with two other competing offers under consideration.
We’ve set our immediate renovation budget at $50,000 to complete our high priority changes now. The plan includes a completely new kitchen with stainless steel appliances and dining room area. New flooring throughout is required including hardwood in main areas. The changes we want require new electrical and lighting (1) Structural Changes to Increase the Function of Space Sunken living room converted to home office… Kitchen and formal dining rooms combined in open plan… The kitchen will move to acquire a more square footage in the space. The dining room will feature a built in window/bench seat. This will create a beautiful aesthetic and draw the table closer to the wall than what would otherwise be possible. With the table “tucked in” closer to the exterior wall, the new centered step down into the family room creates the illusion of wider space. The existing windows in the kitchen and dining room areas will be replaced and repositioned to allow for critical natural light to flood the space. Master Bedroom Storage 2) Finishing and Aesthetics… You’d think it would be easy for an interior decorator to design her dream kitchen. Think again! I see so many different looks and enjoy so many different styles it was difficult to decide what I could really live with over an extended period of time. Every time I’ve gotten tired of a kitchen we’ve moved and renovated the next one to accommodate my change in taste! Given that we don’t plan on moving again, this was it – time to decide. I really needed to hone in on what my true dream kitchen might look like. The style of a kitchen tends to define the finishing look and feel of the entire house so I knew I needed to “get it right.” I followed my own advice and poured over design magazines. I tagged visual images that attracted me until I saw a common thread develop. To be honest the commonalties surprised me. I found myself gravitating towards a blend of painted and stained cabinetry, white apron front sinks, historical feeling kitchens with generous use of trims, footed cabinets, two toned woods, granite countertops and more. As a result, the kitchen (and the entire house) will take on a historical, farmhouse kind of feel. The laminate flooring in the main areas of the house will be replaced with antique maple hardwood. The laminate will be lifted and reinstalled in the bedrooms to replace the original carpets. It’s a budget friendly idea until more hardwood can be installed later on. Envision Flooring in Regina will be installing updated linoleum in the baths and laundry room and installing new carpet in the basement as well as supplying the hardwood which we will install ourselves. New trim and Jeldwyn ladder-back styled interior doors supplied through Fries Tallman will be installed on the main floor. The doors are not only updates but reinforce the farmhouse feel we are attempting to create. Ohhhh - the kitchen! The kitchen is the heart of our home. In my mind an abundance of natural and artificial light is critical. Brian Cattell of Brian Cattell Carpentry will install two new Jeldwyn awning-style windows in the backsplash area of the wall flanking the gas cooktop. These windows allow for natural light from the west while allowing me to keep valuable upper cabinet space above the windows. Brian will also frame in new interior transom windows in the wall above the fridge and wall ovens to allow light from the south to filter through from the front office. Windows to the north in the family room will ensure we have natural light from 3 directions throughout the main floor rooms. The ceilings will be scraped and redone in an updated spraytex finish. The lone florescent light will be replaced with unique pendant lighting over the island, pot lighting in traffic areas, and a new fixture above the dining room table will be added. The lighting is supplied through Richardson Lighting. These changes will adequately light the kitchen while reinforcing the farmhouse look we’re creating. Chris Murray of Chris Murray Custom Cabinets will be installing a complete new custom kitchen. Dark stained, shaker-style footed maple cabinets will appear around the perimeter of the kitchen. A 9’long, multi-tiered, white painted island is the heart of my dream kitchen. The island will have a distinct furniture feel that will feature an undermounted double apron front sink with a wall mounted antique styled faucet. Recessed cubby holes for everyday dishes under a raised, stained maple top will bring together painted and stained finishes. Stained table legs supporting the raised maple top, a 5’ long eating bar, customized pullouts and granite countertops will create an island I hope no one has ever seen before! A window seat with storage below and drawer units flanking each side will grace the new window in the dining room. Reinhardt Plumbing will make the necessary changes to plumbing to accommodate the gas cooktop and location change of the sink and dishwasher. My ever-handy husband Barry plans to do the electrical with the help of a friend who is a journeyman electrician. For that finishing touch of luxury, Tubello Stoneworks will install granite countertops throughout. Colour Palette… I can certainly relate to all my clients who struggle and obsess about the colour in their own homes. I found my colour inspiration from an unlikely source – a coffee mug at Sears! My colour palette combines the stained brown tone of the perimeter kitchen cabinets with the painted white cabinets and trim and light honey and deeper gold tones in the granite countertops. Sound a little boring? It couldn’t be my house without a little red – my favourite colour. This time I’ll select a raspberry brown tone of red for a punch of colour and interest. Brenda Burns of Brenda Burns Painting and Decorating will be painting the main floor of the house while I toil in the basement to save a few $$. Timing… The renovation project begins June 1st when we take possession of the house. This time around we aren’t living in the house while renovating. We’re getting smarter and wiser with age! We’re holding onto our current home nearby for 7 weeks while the renovation takes place. We hope to have all the major pieces of the renovation puzzle complete by the time we move in July 20. Working towards a deadline has its own set of challenges and stressors though. Stay tuned to find out what happened in the end! Wish me luck Saskatchewan Renovation Magazine readers! Even with proper planning, hard work, know-how and an optimistic attitude there are bound to be bumps in our renovation road. Unexpected surprises will no doubt creep up on us but we plan to weather the storm, be positive and creative in our approach and work through the challenges that lie ahead. Read Part Two – the “After” version that appeared September 15th.
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Our new home is a 1629 sq ft bungalow built in 1985 with a developed basement and double attached garage. It’s located on a quiet bay across from the lake in Lakewood, the neighbourhood we’ve lived on and off in for the past 8 years in northwest Regina. Our current home was simply not large enough to sustain our family and my growing, home-based interior design business. Because we love our neighbours and our location we tossed around adding onto our current home but the cost to do so simply did not make financial sense. 
The home has the square footage we require and a layout that, with a substantial main floor renovation, holds great potential. The house is in virtually original condition – the best way to buy a house if you plan to renovate. The only recent upgrades include installation of laminate flooring in the main areas, a relatively new furnace, roof and a new deck installed last summer. Beside the 8 foot ceilings, the house has a traditional floor plan including a formal dining room and sunken formal living room that greets you upon entry. A wall separates the dining room from a kitchen that has original oak cabinetry and florescent light fixture. The sunken family room at the back of the house features a dated wood burning fireplace with an awkward entry point into the room. The kid’s bedrooms are reasonable in size with large closets and the master bedroom has one closet and a ¾ ensuite. Original carpet and linoleum grace the bedrooms and bathrooms. 
The basement is typical of many you see in homes developed in the 1970’s or 1980’s. It features 4 different kinds of woods/wood paneling. They include mahogany trim and doors, pine wainscoting, pressboard wood paneling, and a “mystery wood” feature wall behind a dated bar area. The basement has a main rec room, spare bedroom, half bath and lots of storage space including a cold room and an awkward 7-foot ceiling directly below the sunken formal living room above. It also features more florescent lighting and glued down Berber carpet-even in the half bathroom. As you can see, we have our work cut out for us!