Show 1 Ji 16 1 Y f 4 i 4 ti n hi n r L a aI I ti 1 4 r e S t Hh I fr t tN N 1111 w HARD TO BEll BELIEVE EVE the original living room room- little more than a cramped box really really-is now this spacious t sunny place The dream home remodeling project is the cover story In the cur cur- current rent Womans Woman's Day Home Improvement magazine time a turns turns tract house into dream home Youve You've given up trying to buy your dream home outright and have settled for fora a style tract house that frank frank- frankly frankly ly isn't everything you'd like it to be Still you feel fortunate to be able to buy any house at all and it does have possibilities The question is how do you get from point A your new house as it is now to point B what you know it can become without overshooting the mark and en- en ending ending ding up at Point C bankruptcy court How do you get there At your own pace a step at a time the same way the interior designers at Armstrong carried out the phased overhaul of just such an older tract house The results can be seen in the current Womans Woman's Day Home Im- Im Improvements Improvements magazine an annual publication The first steps involved nothing more than cosmetic changes and a few acquisitions new paint and wallpaper some modular seating units a couple of wall storage units etc this sort sort of of spruce up up will satisfy most new occupants of a ahouse house for a time and you can move onto bigger things as your financial conditions I improve and when your budget allows The heart of the remodeling project was the total re-do re of the kitchen dining room and living room three small cramped looking dated boxes Phase I concentrated on the kitchen For starters the wall between the kit kit- kitchen kit then chen and dining room was knocked out outto outto to make a single large eating cooking area out of the two teensy rooms style European cabinets were hung next sleek and white The cabinets set the tone for the whole decor which is decidedly contemporary As redone the room is mostly clinical white but with big splashes of vivid red the many countertops for instance and lesser accents of bright blue and yellow the china napkins etc An Armstrong tile floor us- us used used ed throughout the plan open area is the decors unifying element These it do-it- yourself Vinyl look a lot like real glazed ceramic imports but they cost costless costless less and their wax no-wax surface cuts down on housework The corners of the room at one end of the kitchen were angled in to form a U probably the most efficient shape for a kitchen At the bottom of the U a desk vas was placed creating a mini home office Dominating the space is an island work center nearly as big as an aircraft car car- carrier carrier rier complete with cook top range and ventilating hood The range refrigerator and wall oven line up in a step saving triangle For quick m meals als and snacks stools can be pulled up to the work island For more leisurely dining a leaf drop parsons parson's table on casters rolls out from its niche against the wall between two pantry cupboards The topper is a white Armstrong suspended ceiling the perfect for a peeling water stained old ceiling The later second phase of the remodel remodel- remodeling remodeling ing saw major structural change in- in including including demolition of the wall separating the living room from the dining cooking area The kitchen counter functions as a divider and on the family room side houses a bar The picture window in the living room was replaced ced with a greenhouse window which floods the whole interior with sunlight And Portions of the upper story inside wall were removed to create an overhang balcony Also during Phase II a third Thomasville wall storage unit was add add- added added ed The three units filled with TV stereo recording devices and so on as aswell aswell well as with books and games take up one entire wall the homes home's electronic entertainment center Another big pur- pur purchase purchase chase was a red enameled standing free fireplace As part of the overall upgrading Arm Arm- strongs strong's best no wax flooring named Supreme was put down Besides its the state styling and exceptional durability this deluxe floor floor- flooring flooring ing features a special backing which simplifies installation and thus often reduces labor costs But the crowning touch in equipping the remodeled Great Room the the new new- newly ly Iy combined kitchen dining and living room was the acquisition of a Radio Sh Shack ck microcomputer for the kitchen desk Presto a home center This powerful piece of electronic dry not only assists with menu planning bUdgeting record keeping and other mundane chores but can also coordinate home security systems to make a burglars burglar's life miserable or Of course transforming a tract home into a dream home isn't cheap but then neither is buying one And this way the step at way the expenses dont don't all come at once The homeowner sets the pace and goes only as s fast and as far far-as he or she wants to go |