10 Things I Wish I Knew Before We Renovated Our Dream Home

Today I’m looking back at Snowberry’s transformation from drab ranch to dream home. And 10 things I wish I knew before we started the renovation.

From Drab Ranch to Dream Home

But first I have exciting news. Snowberry is for sale! That’s right, as of today Snowberry is officially on the market and ready to welcome a new family. You can view the real estate listing here or reach out to Dana at The Dana Green Team for more details.

Before Jim and I move on to our next chapter, I want to take a look back at how far we’ve come from that cold and rainy February day when we pulled into Snowberry’s driveway and knew – before getting out of the car – that this would be our next home. Tour Snowberry before the renovation here.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

We purchased Snowberry in early 2019 and immediately started work on a major glow up. We hired an architect, enlisted a contractor we’d worked with previously, and obtained permits. By mid-July we were underway with the extensive down-to-the-studs renovation. In March 2020 we moved in but the work didn’t stop there.

Let’s get to the heart of the matter, 10 things I wish I knew before we renovated our dream home ~

 

#1 ~ Our Colorful Dutch Door Would be Snowberry’s Most Remarked Upon Feature

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

The appeal of a Dutch door can’t be understated. Paint it a pretty color and no one will notice unpulled weeds, window smudges, or cocoa spilled down the front of your white t-shirt. A Dutch door is also a practical choice especially if you have littles or pets lurking about waiting for the door to open so they can rush out.

If you have a front porch – of any size – painting the ceiling blue is a nod to Southern – Haint Blue – tradition and it’s just plain fun. You’ll find all of our interior paint colors here and here.

 

#2 ~ Our Green Kitchen Would be so Popular

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

Second only to the front door in Snowberry’s popularity, is its green kitchen. Nobody – including our contractor and cabinet maker – thought green cabinets were a good idea. I’ll never forget showing our cabinet maker the swatch of color. He recoiled in horror and must have asked me 10 times whether I was sure this is what I wanted to do. By the time the final call had to be made he had me second guessing but I’m glad I stuck with my instinct that this was the right decision for the house. And, when he came over to see the finished kitchen, after the marble countertops and brass hardware was installed, he told me that he could now see my vision and loved it. He wasn’t the only one, once I started posting photos of the kitchen it became the most oft asked question I received … what is your kitchen cabinet color? It’s Farrow & Ball Vert de Terre.

The main part of the kitchen has marble countertops and backsplash and brass hardware. I chose walnut butcher block for the built-in buffet countertop, under-sink drip rail, and countertop accessories to bring more warmth to the room. I wrote about a few recent kitchen updates here.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

#3 ~ Our Great Room Truly Lives Up to its Name

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

I remember hearing my former mother-in-law, a realtor, use the term ‘great room’ which was new to me. She told me a great room was like a living room or family room, but perhaps a little larger and used for multiple functions. At Snowberry we refer to our dining, TV viewing and beverage bar areas as our great room. We love its size which allows for a large, deep seated sectional where we spend more time than I’d like to own up to. The TV, over the fireplace, is recessed into a built-in cabinet with doors … doors that are rarely closed unless I’m photographing the room.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

When we purchased Snowberry, the great room had low ceilings and a bizarrely placed laundry/mudroom carved out of the back corner. The location of the fireplace made creating a comfortable seating area for TV viewing difficult. Because the largest portion of the room was Snowberry’s original garage, we suspected that the ceiling could be vaulted and fortunately we were right. Of course we removed the weird mudroom/laundry area and suddenly we had a very large, bright and airy space.

See the great room before, during and after the renovation.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

The Ro Sham Beaux beaded chandelier is my favorite light fixture in the house. You can read more about Snowberry’s lighting choices here. And styling a dining table with books here.

In the dining area, we added French doors leading out to the patio.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

Nine months of the year, our outdoor dining and seating areas increase the great rooms expanse. And that’s pretty great! I shared our patio table set for a summer al fresco dinner here.

And that brings me to my next lesson …

 

#4 ~ Raising the Ceiling is Money Well Spent

Snowberry is a 1950’s ranch style home and that means it has 8′ ceilings which are low by today’s standards. I grew up in a similar ranch style home, and I’m not quite 5’5″ so 8′ ceilings aren’t an issue for me. That said, we renovated Snowberry to maintain its original character while realizing it full potential and therefore we investigated raising the ceilings. To that end a structural engineer came out assess the situation, determined it was possible and assigned a cost for each area.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

Not surprisingly, raising ceilings is not cheap and we decided that doing so throughout the house wasn’t how we wanted to allocate precious dollars in our renovation budget. So we focused on locations where raising the ceiling would have the most impact and narrowed it down to two areas. The great room ceiling was vaulted.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

And ceiling in the foyer was trayed. I can’t emphasize enough how much this small alteration impacted the feel of the entire house. First impressions are everything and walking into our small foyer with its higher ceiling makes the space feel more expansive. It also allowed us to hang a small entry pendant.

 

#5 ~ Small Spaces Can Make the Biggest Impact

Bigger isn’t always better. The smallest spaces can often have the biggest impact and its certainly true in a few of our rooms.

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

Our small foyer lives large thanks to the nine-light Dutch door and trayed ceiling allowing for a lantern pendant. A mirror over the entry table reflects light and the small space feels light, airy and welcoming. Read more about how our foyer came together here.

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

Our secondary bath is small but mighty as well as incredibly pretty and functional. Adding a large print wallpaper may seem counterintuitive but it makes the space.

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

Snowberry had the weirdest mudroom/laundry room built into the great room corner. This is one of those previous renovations that left us scratching our heads. I’m sure whoever built it out reasoned that an inside laundry was worth a little inconvenience. And I get it, I want an inside laundry, preferably with some storage, a folding surface and a drying pole. Guess what, all of those things can be achieved in a closet like space and it’s one of my favorite features. I don’t miss not having a dedicated laundry room, because our laundry closet gives me everything I need.

 

#6 Quartzite is a Beautiful and Durable Natural Stone

Not to be confused with quartz, quartzite is a natural stone that’s incredibly beautiful and durable. By durable I mean it doesn’t etch as easily as marble. Jim has fits over marble etching and has obsessed over every bit of patina on our previous home’s marble countertops. He said ‘never again’ to marble, but threw in the towel when I got my heart set on marble for the kitchen. He did draw the line in the bathrooms. While shopping for countertops we were introduced to quartzite which turned out to be a perfect solution.

You’ll find more on our primary bathroom here. And the secondary bath here.

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

I found a huge slab that we both loved and was large enough to fabricate both bathroom countertops.

In order to differentiate the bathrooms, we opted for a polished finish in the primary bathroom and a honed finished in the secondary bath. There was even enough material to fabricate the secondary bath shower curb and shower ledge.

After five years, the quartzite countertops have held up beautifully and we’ll definitely use it in our next house.

 

#7 Color Drenching Makes a Space Feel Bigger

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

Back in 2019 color drenching wasn’t a thing. At least it wasn’t a thing I’d ever heard of and no one I discussed it with seemed to know what I was talking about. Of course it was being done – had been done for ages probably – but wasn’t aware and I didn’t have a name for it.

Color drenching is painting an entire room – trim and all – one color. By entire room, I mean everything – walls, baseboards, crown molding, window molding, doors and ceiling – in one color. Once again everyone thought I was nutzo, including our painting contractor. I’d seen the technique used in an AD feature and I felt it make the room feel larger and less busy. Nice for a bedroom. Anyway, I got a bee in my bonnet that I was going to do it too.

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

If you’re going to experiment, paint is a good way to take a few risks. Paint is easily redone, yes it costs money to repaint, but still, in the scheme of things, it’s just paint.

 

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

Last but not least our library, although I cheated a little here and kept the ceiling white. It’s a good size room and I felt like a bold ceiling might feel heavy. To that end we added no overhead lights, no dreaded cans or even small pucks. Just library and scones lighting around the room and table and floor lamps. Believe it or not, despite the bold color, this room gets a lot of light and is one of the easier spaces to photograph. Go figure.

Snowberry’s library room is so versatile, see how we turned it into a dining room for a family engagement dinner here.

 

#8 Holding Onto the Charm of Original Details is Worth the Effort

Image: Jessica Brydson Photography

 

Preserving a home’s special features or retaining them in spirit is well worth the effort. In Snowberry’s case, the original home’s shingled exterior and diamond paned windows were features that contributed to its charm. Neither feature was in good condition, the original shingles felt heavy and dark form years of patina. Rathing than attempting to clean them, we opted to remove them and replace them with a lighter shingle that maintain the home’s style but with a more modern appeal.

We searched window vendors to replace the original single-paned diamond windows and Pella was one of the few that offered them. We’re not only thrilled with the new diamond pane windows, but the windows and French doors throughout the house. We’ll definitely buy Pella windows again.

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

#9 Copper Accents are Next Level

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

Speaking of charm and character, copper accents are all that in my humble opinion. I’m not just talking copper gutters … although they’re fabulous and worth a little extra moolah.

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

I’m an admirer of Bevolo copper exterior lighting, and we splurged. We also added copper chimney toppers and, finally, a copper squirrel weathervane for the cupola. The squirrel is a nod to our beloved dogs, past and present, who are obsessed.

 

#10 Paint & Lattice Give Wood Retaining Walls New Life

Image: Monica Vargas Photography

 

The area we live experienced a building boom in the 1950’s and wood retaining walls must have been the rage. Who can argue, they’re built to last and continue to get the job done. That said, they don’t necessarily age attractively. Not to worry, a couple of quick – and inexpensive – tricks will transform wood retaining walls to good as new.

Our landscape designer recommended Behr’s Espresso Bean paint. He said that with a fresh coat of this ideal color our retaining wall would fade into the landscape. He was right.

In addition to a fresh coat of paint, our retaining wall got an inexpensive glow up with the addition of lattice between the posts. Paint and lattice did the trick. No longer an eyesore, the retaining wall is now a design feature that blends beautifully into the landscape.

 

So there you have it, 10 things I wish I knew before we renovated our dream home.

Will you help us find Snowberry’s next family? If you know anyone looking for a home in the San Francisco Bay Area please share our listing with them. They can also contact Dana at The Dana Green Team for more information.

We love living in Northern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and our small-ish Lamorinda community. I’ve lived here most of my life and will continue to do so. Jim loves it too, after all what choice does he have because I’m not budging. I’ll continue to share more about our drab-ranch-to-dream-home experience here and on my Instagram, so be sure to follow along. I’ll also be sharing our adventures building our next home downtown … and that series will start soon.

Are you a subscriber to Make Mine a Spritzer, you can sign up here. Each Saturday morning I post a weekly round up of inspirations and goings-on, with one or two additional posts each month related to love of home, style and travel. As a subscriber new dispatches are delivered direct to your inbox hot off the press so you won’t miss a thing.