Oregon Live
Kerri Hoyt-Pack and her husband, Dan Pack, love living in Southeast Portland's Sellwood neighborhood. Dan can ride his bike to his teaching job at The International School. Kerri's favorite yoga studio is just blocks away. Best of all, daughters Hadley, 10, and Emma, 8, can go to a neighborhood school with their horde of neighborhood friends.
"It's like living in a small town with all of the advantages of a city," says Kerri.
The one disadvantage: Their 1909 one-bathroom house was cramped and lacked the kitchen Kerri wanted to whip up the breads and pies she loves to make. So when the price of adding onto the house and remodeling the kitchen exceeded their budget, the couple were motivated to find a solution that would keep them in their beloved neighborhood.
Enter Anne De Wolf, who owns Arciform, a firm that specializes in design, restoration and remodeling, with her husband, Richard. It would be possible to build the addition and make the necessary structural changes to the kitchen, Anne convinced Kerri, but the kitchen remodel could wait. A major change -- removing a kitchen wall and the stairway behind it -- would create more room for the future remodeled kitchen but would leave the area in disarray until the full project was completed.
"Anne is the only person who could have talked me out of doing the kitchen remodeling first," says Kerri, who is the global media director for Nike. "It's amazing what you can get used to," she adds, gesturing toward a kitchen wall where holes in the lath and plaster create a construction-zone feel.
The discipline of Kerri and Dan's decision to upgrade their home remodeling in two phases will pay off not only because it gives them time to save to cover the extra cost, but also because the entire project was designed as a unit. That's unlike the unsettling results often seen when houses undergo a series of remodels and additions with no cohesive plan.
Meanwhile, the addition and outdoor decks at the back of the house has become the new center of their lives. With 500 square feet added to each of the home's two floors, the family has created a space that is ultra kid-friendly and stylish. An eclectic blend of Asian, modern and antique furnishings complements the existing house, and a master suite is at once practical and luxurious.
On a recent weekday after school, Hadley and Emma come in through the new entryway and rush across easy-to-maintain Marmoleum tiles to hang their backpacks inside the roomy pantry -- where afternoon snacks share shelf space with cooking supplies.
At one end of the adjoining family room, a large table, desk, computer and bookshelves are ready for their homework, a steady stream of arts and crafts projects and plenty of neighborhood friends. At the other end, the TV is hidden behind a sliding Chinese screen and surrounded by a sitting area comfortable for kids and adults.
The staircase off the new entry leads to the second story, where the girls' attic-style bedroom stayed intact but gained a bright-pink powder room in what had been the eaves of the old house. It sits plumbed and ready for Dan to finish, another budget-saving move.
The new master suite, Dan's favorite area of the house, boasts windows on three sides, making the room feel larger than it is and linking its occupants -- as least psychologically -- with the treehouse a few yards away.
The master bath remodeling smartly places the shower in a separate room with doors to both the master suite and the hallway. The arrangement, which Anne suggested, makes the shower enclosure accessible to all four family members and eliminates the need for a second shower upstairs.
Kerri credits Arciform -- particularly Anne, who created the design -- for the fact that the project came together so well. That's no small task given that the family was living in Shanghai, China, while the work was being done. Kerri, who was there on a work assignment for two years, said she came back to Portland a couple of times, but mostly they relied on teleconferences via Skype and photos to stay abreast of the six-month project.
That arrangement was comfortable, the couple says, because Arciform had remodeled the house next door so they knew the quality of the workmanship they were getting, and Dan had talked extensively with the remodeling project manager. The magic, however, was between Anne and Kerri.
"Anne and I just hit it off," says Kerri, "She understood my priorities."
Well, maybe not the kitchen priority. Kerri shrugs, saying it will be about a year before she's mixing up bread dough in her new kitchen, but now she has the time to make all of the decisions required of a kitchen remodel.
KERRI'S STYLE
It may have been a quirk of design fate that Kerri Hoyt-Pack was working in China while her home was being remodeled.
It allowed her to pick up some distinctive pieces that she blended with other finds from neighborhood antique shops and elsewhere to create a unique and stylish decor with the help of Anne De Wolf of Arciform.
ASIAN SCREEN: Kerri's husband, Dan Pack, and their daughters, Hadley and Emma, salvaged the screen from a construction site in China and gave it to Kerri for Mother's Day. Kerri stapled the chartreuse fabric to the screen's back and purchased sliding-door hardware from Krown Lab so that the screen could hide the TV.
SALVAGED DOORS: Kerri and Anne found doors at Hippo Hardware on East Burnside Street for the pantry and a doorway leading to the basement. Stripped and painted white, the salvaged doors help tie the old and new parts of the house together.
SHUTTERS: Kerri found blue shutters at Stars Antiques in the neighborhood and liked the way the color worked with the Chinese red ceiling.
"It's like living in a small town with all of the advantages of a city," says Kerri.
The one disadvantage: Their 1909 one-bathroom house was cramped and lacked the kitchen Kerri wanted to whip up the breads and pies she loves to make. So when the price of adding onto the house and remodeling the kitchen exceeded their budget, the couple were motivated to find a solution that would keep them in their beloved neighborhood.
Enter Anne De Wolf, who owns Arciform, a firm that specializes in design, restoration and remodeling, with her husband, Richard. It would be possible to build the addition and make the necessary structural changes to the kitchen, Anne convinced Kerri, but the kitchen remodel could wait. A major change -- removing a kitchen wall and the stairway behind it -- would create more room for the future remodeled kitchen but would leave the area in disarray until the full project was completed.
"Anne is the only person who could have talked me out of doing the kitchen remodeling first," says Kerri, who is the global media director for Nike. "It's amazing what you can get used to," she adds, gesturing toward a kitchen wall where holes in the lath and plaster create a construction-zone feel.
The discipline of Kerri and Dan's decision to upgrade their home remodeling in two phases will pay off not only because it gives them time to save to cover the extra cost, but also because the entire project was designed as a unit. That's unlike the unsettling results often seen when houses undergo a series of remodels and additions with no cohesive plan.
Meanwhile, the addition and outdoor decks at the back of the house has become the new center of their lives. With 500 square feet added to each of the home's two floors, the family has created a space that is ultra kid-friendly and stylish. An eclectic blend of Asian, modern and antique furnishings complements the existing house, and a master suite is at once practical and luxurious.
On a recent weekday after school, Hadley and Emma come in through the new entryway and rush across easy-to-maintain Marmoleum tiles to hang their backpacks inside the roomy pantry -- where afternoon snacks share shelf space with cooking supplies.
At one end of the adjoining family room, a large table, desk, computer and bookshelves are ready for their homework, a steady stream of arts and crafts projects and plenty of neighborhood friends. At the other end, the TV is hidden behind a sliding Chinese screen and surrounded by a sitting area comfortable for kids and adults.
The staircase off the new entry leads to the second story, where the girls' attic-style bedroom stayed intact but gained a bright-pink powder room in what had been the eaves of the old house. It sits plumbed and ready for Dan to finish, another budget-saving move.
The new master suite, Dan's favorite area of the house, boasts windows on three sides, making the room feel larger than it is and linking its occupants -- as least psychologically -- with the treehouse a few yards away.
The master bath remodeling smartly places the shower in a separate room with doors to both the master suite and the hallway. The arrangement, which Anne suggested, makes the shower enclosure accessible to all four family members and eliminates the need for a second shower upstairs.
Kerri credits Arciform -- particularly Anne, who created the design -- for the fact that the project came together so well. That's no small task given that the family was living in Shanghai, China, while the work was being done. Kerri, who was there on a work assignment for two years, said she came back to Portland a couple of times, but mostly they relied on teleconferences via Skype and photos to stay abreast of the six-month project.
That arrangement was comfortable, the couple says, because Arciform had remodeled the house next door so they knew the quality of the workmanship they were getting, and Dan had talked extensively with the remodeling project manager. The magic, however, was between Anne and Kerri.
"Anne and I just hit it off," says Kerri, "She understood my priorities."
Well, maybe not the kitchen priority. Kerri shrugs, saying it will be about a year before she's mixing up bread dough in her new kitchen, but now she has the time to make all of the decisions required of a kitchen remodel.
KERRI'S STYLE
It may have been a quirk of design fate that Kerri Hoyt-Pack was working in China while her home was being remodeled.
It allowed her to pick up some distinctive pieces that she blended with other finds from neighborhood antique shops and elsewhere to create a unique and stylish decor with the help of Anne De Wolf of Arciform.
ASIAN SCREEN: Kerri's husband, Dan Pack, and their daughters, Hadley and Emma, salvaged the screen from a construction site in China and gave it to Kerri for Mother's Day. Kerri stapled the chartreuse fabric to the screen's back and purchased sliding-door hardware from Krown Lab so that the screen could hide the TV.
SALVAGED DOORS: Kerri and Anne found doors at Hippo Hardware on East Burnside Street for the pantry and a doorway leading to the basement. Stripped and painted white, the salvaged doors help tie the old and new parts of the house together.
SHUTTERS: Kerri found blue shutters at Stars Antiques in the neighborhood and liked the way the color worked with the Chinese red ceiling.
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