Tim and Cathi were making progress on renovating their kitchen. They were working with an architect, they had their drawings, and they were getting close to starting… when Cathi found a house just up the street that was absolutely perfect.
Perfect for a growing family if you could look past the abandoned home’s crumbling patio, the failed windows, the bombed out kitchen… and that its most recent residents were 6 or 7 feral cats. At this point who is counting… Oh by the way did I mention how much experience our owners had with renovating? Zip, zero, nada.
So how did it go? Joe Mackin crafted a plan that preserved the best elements of the exterior, added dormers for functionality and aesthetic appeal and completely reconfigured the 2nd floor into a modern space that can be used and enjoyed by parents and children alike.
It turns out Tim and Cathi were excellent at renovating. Cathi was great at blending traditional design with a fun few eclectic choices that just rock. More than once I would see a light fixture and wonder how is she going to pull that off. Sure enough, the rest of the selections would show up and wow, it looked awesome.
And now… drum roll please.
Close to the end of her project, Cathi even participated with us on a 12-person Rittenhouse Builders team in a 200 mile Ragnar relay running race. In the beginning of a project, we have clearly defined identities: client, builder, architect. By the end, we still have specific jobs to do but we are one successful team. I think we all hit the lottery working together.