Keeping Up With The Copelands

I fully realize that our compulsion is further fueled by every successful renovation project. Our last house was full of such successes. Take a look.

We replaced the front door with this mahogany leaded glass door, which to save money I finished myself. And, refinished a few years later. Note to self, southern exposure requires a storm door with UV filtering film. Not as pretty, but saves your wood door. The iron railing replaced a traditional wood rail and there was no rail on the plant ledge. The chandelier has those little flame shaped bulbs that sit in a magnetized housing so the bulb sways back and forth. Gives off no real light, but looks amazing. So, we added can lights to actually light the foyer. The last piece we did was the antique doors on the ledge. At Christmas time I hung garland and large bows on all the railings. Getting that on the plant ledge railing required an extension ladder and some gymnastics moves. Every year I said never again and every year I climbed that ladder and hoped I wouldn't fall and break my neck.

This room was one of our early projects. You faced into it when you came in the front door. When we bought the house this room had nothing in it but a window and carpet. We put in the french doors out onto the deck (which was also a project, but I'll show you the redo of that one later), hardwood floors to match the entry, built-in bookcases with ventless gas fireplace, and coffered ceiling. While the fireplace proved to be too strong for the room to actually use, we loved the look and really enjoyed this room. When the construction was finished the only furniture we had in it was the piano, which has a Piano Disc installed. I remember when our grandson would come over and we would dance to the piano music. He was only a couple of years old and I mostly just picked him up and carried him around when I was dancing. Really good times.

The dining room did not require quite as much construction as the living room, but we added the wall sconces with those same cool flame bulbs as the entry chandelier. I stripped off the wallpaper that was under the chair rail and the border under the crown molding. The ceiling was fun. I was working with a decorator for a while at this point and she recommended the metallic ceiling. Told me it would work to roll the paint on and then brush a texture in that center tray. Well, Ralph Lauren metallic paint does not roll on. It streaks with every stroke of the roller. Then, I had an idea. What if I just sponged on a second coat? It worked great. I had the hammered finish look on the whole ceiling and then I used a swirling brush technique in the tray.

Another cool feature of our house was the theater we put in upstairs. My husband is in the AV industry and designs these rooms, so of course we had a showroom right in our house. The system was THX certified and that screen is 10 feet wide. It is hard to tell with the lights so bright for this real estate listing photo, but the ceiling was painted like a night sky. Had light blocking drapes made for the window and the french doors, so even on a bright day it could be completely dark in the room. This room was a favorite of everyone who came to visit us. Especially our grandkids.

The kitchen was one of our more recent projects. The floor was done early on and we upgraded the counter tops back then too, so we saved those countertops to reconfigure on the new perimeter cabinets. Other than that, it was a total gut job down to the studs. New layout, new island configuration, new lighting, and of course all new cabinets and appliances. The floating glass bar top required fabrication by a glass company and an iron fence company. You can't see them, but there are iron brackets that suspend the glass up there that we custom designed. We absolutely loved everything we did in this room and have no regrets about any of our choices. Although I do suspect that the stone fabricator regrets cutting the hole for the prep sink sideways. I think that is why they are so expensive--the fabricators just know they are going to have to buy you a new piece of material so they just build it into the price up front. I'll never forget racing to the stone yard hoping that there was still one more piece of this Capelli marble left from this lot as this type of stone is random and cannot be matched. Thankfully there was and that kept me from having to send someone to Africa with a photo, dynamite, and a chisel, because I was going to have this countertop and that was that.

The hearth room connected to the kitchen and breakfast nook (to the left). Not too much construction here, but we did remove chair rail and then beefed up the crown molding so we could put rope light behind it. Gave the room a really nice glow.

This deck and planting beds were put in just months before we moved. The sunroom was an early project that we updated when we realized that we really did not want an indoor/outdoor room. It needed to be all indoors and air conditioned. The deck was a significant improvement to our first deck, which we discovered had construction flaws after it failed. We did get 10 years out of it, so no complaints. Most folks probably would have just replaced the existing deck as simply and cheaply as possible if they knew they would likely move across the country. But, not us. We made it fabulous just in case we would end of up living here for a long time.

One of our favorite features was the covered cooking area with lights and a fan. You can't see it in this photo but at the end of the counter top against the house was a sink. Only wish the weather was better. It was always too hot and too buggy. We've eaten out on our deck here in NY more times in the months we've been in the new house than the entire time we lived in Memphis. Of course the deck isn't this nicely designed--yet?

The proof that all our work was worth the effort was when we sold the house in one business day. Yep, 24 hours. And in the worst housing market in decades--for our asking price, which was quite a bit more than the house down the street that was also for sale. I can't say we got all our money out of this house, but living there had a value too.

Now the bar is set and we intend to make our current house just as nice even if it doesn't have all the features and square footage of this one. And, in record time. Stay tuned.