Our house...was our castle and our keep

Happy New Year to anyone out there reading this. I wanted to continue posting work from my big residential project and keep the momentum going into the new year. Let's hope for even bigger accomplishments!

Anyhow, here's the first floor of 2146 Pine Street, BEFORE (click on image for full view):

In my redesign of this house, I wanted to move the Master Suite down to the first floor, since my "clients" were both in their 50s. Their children were of varying ages, but eventually I thought they'd all move out and the parents would want to just live on one main level with the kitchen, library, laundry room, etc. (Click on image for full view.)

Here's the second floor BEFORE (click on image for full view):

By giving the kids (aged 15, 12, and 5--what a range!) reign of the second floor, I made it completely family-centered, with an office specifically for the kids to do homework or crafts. I wish I had had something like this when I was a kid...(Click on image for full view.)

I have to admit, I was dreading the hand-rendering for this project (in fact, this entire project was done by hand--even the construction documents!) but in the end I loved it. I really honed in on my style and perfected my technique.

Total time: approx. 2 hours per floor.