Raising The Roof
Highland couple looked up rather than out to create their dream home

by Carolyn Will
Reprinted courtesy of the Villager and author’s permission.

Krista and Don Schwartz loved their 11/2 story Highland Park home from the day
they moved in eight years ago. They also loved the neighborhood. So when they
decided last winter that they wanted more space, they opted to move up instead
of out by tearing off the roof.

Krista and Don Schwartz relax in the family room of their newly
remodeled home on Hartford Avenue.
Photo by Brad Stauffer.

“The roof needed to be replaced anyway,” Krista said with a laugh.

Ten months later, the Schwartzes have added 700 square feet to their original
1,500-square-foot home at 1279 St. Clair Ave. They added a butler’s pantry,
family room, loft/den, office, master bedroom, small bedroom and full bath,
plus ample attic space beneath the peaked roofline. They also added outdoor
lighting, a patio and new shrubbery.

“We worked really hard to make it look like the addition was always here,” Don said.

The Schwartzes brought their own professional experience to the project. Don, the principal owner of Schwartz Properties, redevelops and manages multi-family dwellings. Krista, who operates her own interior design business called Indicia, specializes in remodeling jobs where she gets involved in the architectural details.

Krista brought in Bryan Carpenter, an architect with Yunker Associates, to draw a new roof line that would fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. Adding a full story meant extending the chimney by nearly a third. They chose Kasota Stone to match the front of the house. They also added antique chimney pots that they found in Scotland. The house now features copper roofs over the front and back doors in addition to copper gutters. “It was an extravagance,” Don said.
They picked Mick Johnson of Johnson Creek to do the outside work.

Inside, the living room features a coved ceiling and dark hardwood floors that were retained from the 55-year-old home. “We had to emphasize to the contractors that they couldn’t damage anything, and that was really difficult with construction going on directly overhead,” Krista said.

The couple moved their home offices to the basement and used plastic to seal off the minimum amount of living space needed to stay in the house — their first-floor bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. The contractor, Bloomington-based Plekkenpol Builders, created an outside entrance to the second-floor work area in the back.

“It was like having upstairs neighbors who had a building project going on,” Krista said.
“On some days it was too noisy to even shout over and sometimes just too many people in the basement.”

Heating costs, surprisingly, did not go up during construction. “Our heating costs were pretty much the same for 2005 and 2006,” Don said. “I expect our costs to be higher with the added space, but we had them insulate really well and we added new windows throughout the house, which also helped with efficiency.”

Passing from the living room through the kitchen, which the couple remodeled shortly
after moving in, the first new space you come to is the butler’s pantry and mud room. It includes a small beverage cooler, hidden microwave and ample drawer space for grilling utensils and items for their golden retriever, Lucy.

A new family room looks out on the back patio where a second bedroom and screened porch once stood. “We love this room,” Don said. “We just had our cooking club over last night and it was such a nice space to sit and enjoy their company.”

The room has a large gas fireplace with window seats on either side and a faux beamed
ceiling. A floor-to-ceiling bookcase/cabinet was built on the opposite wall and the room
closes off with French doors.

The stairs leading to the second story are original and just needed refinishing. At the
top of the stairs is the loft/den with large windows, a reading chair and desk. “This area used to lead you down a narrow hallway to one small bedroom in the back,” Don said. “We knocked down the walls to the hallway and really opened this space up.”

To line the open staircase, Krista splurged on a two-toned wooden banister. “The newel posts and baluster I had custom-turned by a man in New Orleans,” she said.

On the east side of the upstairs they added an office for Krista with arched openings. She has
room for a drafting table, floor to-ceiling shelves, table and chairs for clients, and a desk.
“I have south-facing windows so on sunny days I get a lot of natural light,” she said.

Toward the front of the house are two bedrooms. The master bedroom has a window seat
and abundant storage space. The light fixtures include several chandeliers and sconces, which
are a mix of family pieces and antiques found in local shops.

“We like the classic look fromthe ’30s and ’40s mixed in with English country,” Krista said.

A rear view of the Schwartzes’ newly remodeled home.
Photo by Brad Stauffer.

They also added a small bedroom and full bath with a marble counter that stands 34 inches
high. “You know those older homes had their sinks so low you’d get wet just leaning over to
wash your face,” Krista said.

As long as they were remodeling, they also redid all of the home’s water lines. “We added copper pipes and a recirculating line for the hot water,” Don said. “When you turn on the hot water, it’s hot immediately.”

Every room in the house is also now wired for the Internet.

So how much did all the remodeling cost? “We definitely doubled the value of our home,” Don said. “It’s not something you’d undertake as in investment to sell. We never plan on moving.”