You may remember the whole house renovation of the ranch home in Naperville.  Well, the transformation is finally complete! The family is moved back in and ecstatic with the results!

The exterior has received a dramatic makeover complete with the addition of a porch, new siding, architectural gables, and a new driveway.

The interior has gained an updated kitchen, a powder room, a new fireplace with built-in shelving, and a brand new master suite.

The focus of the kitchen design, besides the obvious aesthetics, was to increase storage and efficiency for everyday use.  By tastefully adding more cabinetry and installing organization systems in them, the kitchen is now much easier to cook in with everything in its place.

We also increased the efficiency of the space upstairs by turning two small bedrooms and a bathroom into a spacious master suite.  By moving a few walls and rethinking the space, Crimson was able to give the homeowners a bigger master bedroom, a walk-in closet, a master bathroom, and a home office.  Talk about efficiency!

Crimson is happy to welcome yet another family back to their new and improved home, custom designed for their specific needs, wants, and tastes.

Another home in south Naperville is seeing some big changes thanks to the Crimson team. The owners loved the existing home, but its kitchen was small, dark, and did not take advantage of the views to the beautiful back yard.

Our solution: a 300 square foot addition that would add ample light and space to the kitchen, making it the centerpiece of the home.

Now, the walls and drywall are up, and it’s all coming together.

As you can see, the addition blends seamlessly with the existing structure and features plenty of windows to provide light and views to the backyard.

Soon, the hardwood floors and cabinetry will be installed and it will really come to life.  The kitchen design includes ivory painted inset cabinetry by Fieldstone Cabinetry, a built-in range hood, plenty of pantry storage, and a large central island with seating.

The galley-shaped design will keep the kitchen feeling open and easy to move around in.  The large island will act as a central gathering place, encouraging the family to cook together and making it perfect for entertaining.

The space by the windows will serve as a nice sunny spot for the dining table and even enough room for some extra seating.  Stay tuned to watch this beautiful space unfold.

Well, we have completed 98% of an addition in Downers Grove.  The remaining exterior parts of the project will remain until the weather cooperatives and we can replace the existing driveway and front porch.  The client is all moved in and the kids are enjoying their new bedrooms.  What fun.  A room of your own!  It is reported that our youngest client (2 years old) is sleeping much better now that she doesn’t have to share a room.  It’s good to know that these projects really do make a difference in peoples’ lives.

For those that have not seen this project before, we added an entire second-story on an existing 1950′s ranch home.  We also added a family room addition on the first floor that allowed for a family room three times as large as the original.  It also made room for the laundry to move from the dark basement to our client’s new favorite room in the house – a laundry/mud room.

This room off the garage now has space for a five foot long coat rack as well as individual lockers for each child.  Everybody gets their own storage space for coats, books and shoes.  In addition the room has a good-sized closet, the washer/dryer, cabinets above the washer/dryer and a laundry sink.  There is a lot of function packed into one room!

One of the former bedrooms on the first floor was turned into a home office area where the kids can gather around the computer after school and do their homework.  This room also made way for the new stairway to the second floor as well as a large closet under the stairs.

Upstairs are three new bedrooms, a bathroom and a large hall closet.  Each bedroom has it’s own double-wide closet the length of the room.  Giving each bedroom almost fourteen feet of hanging space!  The homeowner says that this is one of her favorite features to the new addition – all the closet space!

The upstairs bath features two sinks and a separate toilet/shower room.  Plenty of room for the three young children to get ready in the morning.

All-in-all the clients are loving this new addition.  Their friends, family and neighbors all say that the addition looks like it has always been there; which is music to our ears!

This photo shows the part of the addition which includes the new family room.

Electricians and HVAC contractors are currently working on the addition,

 and drywall will start to be put up in about two weeks. 

 Here’s a side shot of the progress on the new living room.

Work on a second story addition began in Downers Grove this month. All told, 1,100 square feet will be added in new additions to the house. This shows the original look of the house before the start of the remodel.

Included in the addition are 3 new bedrooms,1 new bathroom along with a family room. As well as the laundry room will be moved from the basement up to the new addition.

 
You can see in the photo to the left a new wall is being added for one of the bedrooms that will later be built. Shown in the picture below is how the house looked on Thursday afternoon.

We recently wrapped up construction on the second-story addition/kitchen renovation project that was in progress on the North side of Naperville.  We are happy to report that the homeowners are thrilled with the results and wasted no time moving back into their kitchen.  These photos were taken in our last full week at the project so you will notice some things not quite done and temporary plastic and floor coverings in place.

The kitchen features Alder hardwood cabinets from Fieldstone Cabinetry.  Caleb did a great job installing them and they are full of features such as roll-out shelves, a spice rack an apothecary drawers.  The countertops are New Venetian Gold granite and the sink and faucet are from Kohler.

Paul did an awesome job installing the backsplash tile.  Unfortunately for him the pattern worked out that he needed to install 75% of the tile pieces individually and not as sheets as they were designed.  Luckily he stuck with it and it turned out beautifully.

The new floor is red oak that was stained in place and finished with three coats of a water-based finish.  All the appliances were from the existing kitchen and we laid out the new kitchen to accommodate them.

I will need to get this kitchen into the before and after gallery just as soon as I get some real photos (no offense iPhone) of the completed project.

Work continued on our latest Naperville project today with the installation of the spray-foam insulation.  It’s very similar to Great Stuff, only on a much larger scale.  The foam we used on this project gets a whooping R7 per inch!  That allows for up to an R25 valued in a standard 2×4 exterior wall.  That’s a far cry from the standard fiberglass insulation products that only allow for an R13 in a 2×4 wall.

On this project we used 2-3/4″ of foam for an R20 value.  This new 650 square foot addition will be far superior in insulation value to the existing home.  As well as offering a superior Rvalue, foam also acts as a great barrier to air infiltration.  The foam seals virtually all gaps in the walls allowing for no air movement.  It is also impervious to water so no moisture can move through the wall.  It really is a great product and we are looking forward to using it more on future projects.

After almost a week-long rain delay we are getting started on our latest project: a second story bedroom addition in Naperville. The addition will be over the garage and have space for a bedroom, bathroom, closet and laundry room. All told we are adding about 600 feet of space.

On Friday we installed a beam in the garage that will support the weight of the addition.

We also took advantage of the crane on site to move several units of lumber into position.  Thanks to our friends at Conley Steel for the help!

It’s been a few weeks since we completed our addition project in Bolingbrook.  I thought I would get some photos up that I shot with my phone.  The homeowners are still busy moving all their belongings back into the house.  In a couple of weeks maybe we can get some good after pictures to add to the gallery.  Until then these will have to do.

On this project we added fourteen feet to the back of the house to double the size of the kitchen, add a laundry room and double the size of the master bedroom.  We also added a large deck and a three car garage and a full basement under the new addition.  The project took about six months to complete.  During that time we had to work with the city of Bolingbrook to obtain a zoning variance to allow the new garage structure to be built in its current location.  All-in-all a very challenging project.

The foundations are all in and framing has begun. As you can see, it is really starting to take shape. The back wall of the house is coming out to connect the existing house to the addition. I’ll get some more photos of this major remodeling project up soon.