Transformation: Cramped Entry Hall becomes Welcoming Foyer

One of my favorite projects from the recent past is this entry hall/living room remodel which was part of a larger whole-house master plan and renovation. This client has a lovely Lake Oswego home which she bought to be closer to family. It’s a generously sized home whose last owners had owned it for many […]

1940s Galley Kitchen Update

This cute, little gem of a 1940s cottage had a narrow, double-galley kitchen. Original cabinetry was modest and failing after nearly 80s years of use. The challenge was to re-make the kitchen…only better! Both homeowners like to cook and be in the kitchen together but it is a fairly small space. The refrigerator was placed […]

Adding on to a 1920s Laurelhurst Bungalow with Big Dormer

This is a project that I completed around six years ago for a client and dear friend. The couple had just purchased a very cute bungalow type house in the Laurelhurst neighborhood that had a large, vaulted attic space which was livable as-is but was essentially just one very large room covered in knotty-pine panelling. […]

Multi-function Dividing Wall and Bedroom

This family came to me to see if there was a way to add a third bedroom to this little bungalow so that their kids could each get a room of their own. The home had previously been remodeled with an addition that gave them a large kitchen and master suite. But the existing living room […]

Woodstock Double Galley Kitchen

A galley kitchen can be a real challenge but with some careful moves and thoughtful design, you can create a real workhorse of a room! This darling, bungalow style home from the 1920s, had a small but efficient kitchen on the back side of the home. The kitchen appeared original but there had been some […]

Decommissioning a Cesspool in Portland

This is part of a longer story about doing a master suite addition project on my own home. I’ll add more posts as the project takes shape but you can start here to learn more about the remodel.  A little story about cesspools One of the surprises when I got to permitting my project was the […]

Evolution of a Remodel – Part 2

  If you haven’t read Part 1 in “Evolution of a Remodel” you may want to do so. In this Part 2, I want to show how we changed our design to get to a price we needed that fit our overall goals for this house and for our lives. PRICING I solicited bids from […]

Evolution of a Remodel – Part 1

  In this two-parter, I’m going to talk about my own home project, how it evolved, and all the things that came into play to inform the process including finances, budget, life goals, pessimism, blind faith, and occasionally luck. TRADE UP OR REMODEL? Like many (most… maybe all?) of you, I’ve been dreaming of remodeling/fixing/adding on […]

Kelly Street • Attic Conversion

I initially contacted Amanda to take a look at our unfinished attic space. We were struggling to make the layout in our 1910 farmhouse-style home work with our growing family. As we stood in the raw space, examining the rafter layout and roof structure, she outlined some of the issues and limitations of converting the […]

Montavilla • Structural Change

My husband and I and our two daughters just moved into a classic Portland cottage that had been renovated to add a full second floor. I loved all the space on the new second level but I had a feeling that the original first floor layout could be improved. I had an idea about removing a […]