In the summer of 2023, we moved our family across the country to Minnesota. We found a wonderful home on a quiet cul-de-sac in a southwest suburb and spent the year renovating it. In this first round of remodeling, we focused on the infrastructure. I often advise my clients to ensure the “bones” of the house are solid before embarking on the fun projects. This infrastructure isn’t glamorous, but it is imperative to address before spending money on interior finishes. 

The first oddity we encountered was the slider door to nowhere. It seemed that this was never intended for access outside, but rather served as a “picture window” for the family room. You can sort of see it here—it is blocked by the oversized shrubs we also needed to remove, as they were planted way too close to the house.

Our solution was to leave it as a door and construct a deck and hot tub area. We had to bury the overhead lines since they were so low, and then began the process of building the deck with very deep, frost upheaval-resistant footings. We had new electrical work installed for the hot tub and a slab poured. After finishing the framing, we installed Timber Tech framing using the hidden clip system.

Both the chimneys of the home were compromised and had to be repaired.  It was quite the job and it was pretty cool seeing them finish the top cap off with a torch at the end of the day.

And finally, new insulation was blown into the attic space to bring it up to code.  We refinished the white oak floors and did quite a bit of painting.  Stay tuned for our next blog post to see more!