Avellino Remodel Narration and Explanation
This job was a labor of love. Friends from church found out that her father was diagnosed with ALS disease and that they would be moving from Texas to Middletown, VA to be close to family.
The friends decided to buy this house next to theirs and remodel it to take care of Dad. The house has a history; the portion on the le+ was built in 1880. The 2-story on the right and the additions on the back came decades later and had been modified/upgraded multiple times.
I was asked to remodel the back kitchen, bedroom and bathroom to prepare it for wheelchair accessibility for Dad while making it normal for Mom to function and take care of him.
The existing kitchen was a cramped galley-style area pinched between the bathroom wall and the access to the crawl space.
On the other side of the crawl space door was the laundry room and the windows in this space functioned only to provide ambient light…no real views.
The bedroom and bathroom were accessible only by way of the old portion of the home. The old hot water baseboard heaters would need to go.
Because of the challenges, the design took a few twists and turns, and this is what we ended up with.
Demolition of the interior took about a week. The 140-year-old construction had its challenges. The brick and mortar were really fragile.
The exterior demolition went quicker once the fence and pool were out of the way.
The 2 bedroom exterior walls and floor were all that could be saved. Everything else had to be removed right down to the floor joists.
The kitchen had no foundation, so we had to pour a grade beam.
Rebuilding the existing structure was meticulous work.
The fragile brick had to be furred out for the dryer duct and the new cabinets.
The crawlspace access was changed to a panel in the floor.
I took advantage of the abandoned window opening to accommodate the dryer duck.
All the systems went in and this wall contains them all.
This is a complex floor: From the bedroom on the le+, up to the bathroom in the middle, up to the kitchen on the right…with the sunken shower in the middle.
Drywall, durok and tile went in.
The curbless shower works well and looks even better.
Here the cabinets are being installed.
The vanity was made accessible for Dad.
The big open kitchen is a vast improvement on what was there.
Lots of views, light and countertop space.
The folks are really pleased.
Access from kitchen to bathroom to bedroom is seamless.
Instead of dividing the room, the access to the crawl is that hatch in the floor. Can you see it?
Dad’s new shower.
Taking care of all his needs.
And a place to lay his head at night.
