The ranch-style home Lori and Bob Cudone bought in Batavia 11 years ago came with an attached two-bedroom apartment separated by a breezeway. At first they used the extra space for Lori’s medical practice, but that became too intrusive on family life.
In 1995, the couple asked Your Place for advice. How should they go about turning the apartment into a greatroom and the breezeway into a foyer? We brought in an architect to consult with them and offer some pointers.
This spring, they sent an e-mail message to say they had finished the project and to invite us to take a look, which we did.
Instead of small, boxy rooms and a dark entrance into the home, the space is now filled with light and warmth. It consists of a large room overlooking the wooded back yard, a bedroom, a full bath and a foyer with vaulted ceiling and skylights. Also new are the deck and brick patio.
Several stairs and a hand-crafted oak railing lead up to the kitchen, living room, a second full bath and three more bedrooms.
Lori and Bob hired contractors to do the electrical and plumbing work and to hang drywall, but otherwise did the work themselves. It took them a little over a year to complete.
“We’re good novices,” said Bob. “We do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions, and we do a good job the first time.”
Roofing the entire house was the first step, which they took late in 1995.
“Everything was like, before we do this, we have to do this,” said Lori.”Before we put in the skylights, we needed a new roof.”
“That was a tough one,” said Bob. “We had three layers of roof to tear off.” They hired a few high school students for a day to help with the tear-off. Then they had to get the shingles up quickly. Winter was just around the corner.
“That was the hardest work I’ve ever done,” Lori recalled. “It snowed, so it was a little slippery up there.”
Their three children, now ages 11, 9 and 8, helped, too. They took drink and lunch orders and picked up hundreds of stray nails for a penny each.
“They loved to bring us stuff,” Bob said with a smile. “That meant they could climb the ladder.”
With the roof finished, the couple moved indoors. They tore down walls and moved windows. They ripped out a load-bearing wall to get the large space they wanted–and then wrangled 10 of their friends into hoisting the huge support beam they put in its place.
“We have a lot of sweat equity in this place,” said Lori.
Most of the work progressed uneventfully, but they did have one disastrous experience: The house has baseboard hot-water heat, and during the winter a thermostat wire became disconnected. A couple of pipes in the cast-iron radiators broke and caused flooding. Only some old carpeting was damaged, but the radiators had to be replaced.
“That wasn’t in the plans,” said Bob.
The Cudones spent about $30,000 on the renovation. The biggest expense was re-routing the heat ducts when they tore out the wall separating the breezeway and the apartment. They could have avoided the cost by tearing out only part of the wall, but they preferred the more open look. A couple of items, wood floors and a fireplace, were put on hold. “When you’re on a budget you have to make concessions,” said Lori.
Although both Lori and Bob are thrilled with the new space, they might do things a little differently the next time, they said.
After the new roof was on, they watched a home-improvement television program in which a roofer placed a tarp on the ground to catch falling debris. Bob wishes he had thought of that. The yard cleanup would have been much easier.
“If we had unlimited funds, I’d like to have had more work done by other people or lived somewhere else while we were doing the work,” said Lori. “It took so long and we were living through the mess.”
“It did take a long time,” Bob agreed. “Maybe contractors could have done it in a month, but I get a personal satisfaction to look at it and know we did it.”
The Cudones took on the project with the intention of living in the home permanently, but that is not to be. Bob took a new job Downstate and the house is up for sale. They take their leaving in stride.
“We’ll be just as happy in the next place,” said Bob.
