Last year some of our past clients reached out hoping to come up with a solution for a pretty, but not-functional courtyard in their backyard. A family of four, they’d purchased the home from someone whose lifestyle didn’t quite lend itself to wobbly toddlers and tired parents. Not well protected from the sun, and certainly not from the summer’s mosquitoes, however pretty, the courtyard was seemingly full of steps. Everywhere you looked there seemed to be a brick step just begging for a little boy to skin his knee or stub his toe.

When a past client of ours called wanting a master bathroom addition on her Brookside tudor there was only one thing to do: call Dan Wessel. Dan, our longtime architect partner, is the master of designing new spaces to look and feel as though they belonged to the house from the very beginning.

If you haven’t already, check out this post for a little background on this remodeling project. You’ll see that about 18 months ago we tackled the clients’ bathroom, and after a bit of a break, they wanted to knock out the kitchen as well. While the bathroom needed a full gut and required us to move quite a bit of plumbing, the kitchen remodel wasn’t nearly as invasive. It was mostly the look and feel of the kitchen that drove the clients bananas, not so much the function of it.

A couple years ago we got connected to these empty-nester homeowners as they were exploring a master bathroom remodel. They’d recently bought a villa in the Hallbrook subdivision and while it was in great shape, it was a bit (or, well, a lot) too Tuscan for their taste.

Tucked away on a darling street in Mission Woods, this home gave us heart eyes upon first visit. So much curb appeal. What it was lacking was a kitchen/entertaining area functional for the family of four (with twin toddlers!) who lived in it. Additionally there was a somewhat odd glassed-in pass-through from the kitchen to the main living area.

Classic case of the cobbler’s kids. My personal home is an indefinite work in progress. But after having Ruth come by to take some pictures of my kids’ rooms before we did a little re-arranging a few weekends ago, I realized that despite introducing you to our then-new home in 2016 and having you follow…