“The design was stuck in the 80s,” she says. “It had the mauve bathroom… and I mean mauve tile, mauve toilet, mauve sink and mauve tub,” she chuckles. “So that had to go. The kitchen had been remodeled earlier, but was still pretty old and needed to be redone.” The house at one time had a carport and a porch that had been turned into a bedroom and a family room respectively. But you had to drop down a level to the bedroom and back up to the family room, so you were going up and down levels which wasn’t optimum in Pat and Tom’s minds.
In preparation for their retirement years, they preferred to remain at ground level. In fact, the Blacks initially planned to remove the house and build new, but that would require increasing the elevation of the main floor level due to FEMA compliance requirements. The homeowners had visions of a Mediterranean oasis with large rooms, open spaces and fluid transition from space to space. The site was perfect, but the house was a small 1800 sq ft structure with limited water views and no cohesive flow to the floor plan.
“We also wanted to use a design build approach for the renovation,” Pat says. “We didn’t want it to be simply
a contractor driven job, nor did we want to be jumping through hoops with an architect. We just wanted a
one level home that was ultra-functional,” she says.
ENTER TRIPLEPOINT DESIGN BUILD
“We looked up a few of the design build people in the area and I happened to call Lauren Fiske at TriplePoint
and she was just so accommodating on the phone,” Pat comments. “Then, Neal Fiske, CR, GCP, came out and talked with us and we really liked his ideas. He’s just one of those people whose brain is moving so fast that you can almost see it working,” she comments. “He just churns out exceptional ideas.” During design meetings, Neal discovered that the Blacks envisioned a remodel which maximized their wonderful waterfront views. They wanted to live outside as much as possible. Simple lifestyle, informal, easy to entertain, clean lines, organic, practical and beautiful were some of the adjectives they used to describe their dream home. The site was deep and provided for additional space in the front yard. The existing dark and dreary front entry was lost in the front porch that also blended in with the rest of the front elevation. Curb appeal was limited to the large circular driveway that graced the front lawn. Ultimately, TriplePoint formulated a design which reconfigured and opened up existing space with a result that was perfect for the homeowners’ needs. Large windows, elevation changes and enlarged spaces transformed Pat and Tom’s dreams into a stunning reality.
FAVORITE FEATURES
According to Pat, Neal incorporated a number of unique features into the home. Starting when you enter through the front door, you can see straight through to a beautiful view of the water. “On the water side of the house, it’s all sliding glass doors and stationary windows,” she says “Neal created a vaulted ceiling and on top of the sliding glass doors he placed an archway of six windows that’s just stunning.” “Then, we moved the kitchen. It had been facing the water, but we moved it so we could have windows all across the back. There is a big island with a Carrera counter top. Behind it is a plethora of cabinets, a gas cook top, a double oven and a tall Thermador refrigerator. The cabinets are up higher, 6” higher than norm, so they go way up and it’s really striking when you walk in. Wood is very contemporary and it’s gray which is really set off by the stainless steel appliances.”
“Next came a new laundry room and this is where Neal was really amazing. We had a fireplace in the living room area and who uses a fireplace in Florida so we said let’s get rid of it. Neal felt that would capture enough space to put in a new laundry room. So, he created the extra space and a special laundry pantry with five sliding shelves that are a real cool fence-like material. I cannot express how much I love my laundry room, it’s ultra-cool,” Pat raves. “And our new deck is awesome. It’s made of a white composite material and moves out from the house in a series of three circles. It looks almost like it could go on forever out into the water.” The major key to this all-encompassing transformation was to develop a design that would allow for two completely independent construction cycles, keeping in compliance with what is called the 50% rule. In short, to honor the FEMA compliance guidelines, you cannot substantially improve more than half the value of the structure in a remodeling capacity. To comply with the 50 % FEMA rules, TriplePoint developed a construction strategy that essentially built the master plan shell of the new structure around the existing walls of the main house.
“We just love our remodel,” Pat stresses. “We love what Neal came up with and we’re very happy we followed his advice. The finished product has far exceeded our expectations.”
