When Christine and Taylor Poston first walked into the house that they bought last year, Taylor said, "This is it," his wife recalled. "And I said, 'No, it's not.' "
The house, built in 1960, was well-maintained, but dated.
Its kitchen was straight out of the '60s, with linoleum floors and vintage brown appliances, and the home's pristine white carpeting was impractical for their family. "We have two boys and a black dog," Christine said. She also wasn't crazy about the architectural style of the one-story rambler, which had soaring vaulted ceilings and a walkout lower level. "It wasn't my dream house," she said. "I wanted something cottage-y."
But she could see the house had "good bones," along with a great lot and location: more than an acre set on a small lake and tucked into an established neighborhood with mature trees. "It was a house we could do something with," said Taylor.
So they bought the house and started talking to contractors to figure out how they could update it for modern living.
"Like most homes built in that period, the kitchen was stuck in the corner," said Bob Boyer, owner/president of Boyer Building Corp. (www.boyer building.com), the Minnetonka builder they chose for the project.
Christine, an avid baker, envisioned a big open kitchen — "a place where everybody could hang out together." To make the most of the space, Boyer proposed flipping the floor plan, so that the kitchen overlooked the wooded back yard rather than the street.
The couple also wanted a formal dining area, a mudroom and a small first-floor laundry room. "I wanted one-level living," Christine said.