It was the kind of renovation most people just dream about: Highly skilled professionals come into your house, work their magic, and in a few days, your home is transformed. Best of all, the whole thing is free.
For one suburban Buffalo Grove mother, it wasn’t a dream. Just before Mother’s Day, Illyce Randell received the news that she was one of the winners of the Mom’s Dream Come True contest on the “Live With Regis and Kelly” TV show.
Considering that Randell knew nothing about the contest (her mother had secretly entered her), it came as quite a surprise.
“When I pulled up in front of my house late that morning, my mother came out of the house crying,” Randell recalls. “When I saw the cameras, I figured it was something good.”
A few moments later, HGTV’s “Designed to Sell” host Monica Pedersen dropped by to let her know just how good it really was. Randell had won a room makeover, courtesy of the TV talk show; Pedersen and her construction team, Fine Line Construction; Lowe’s; and JC Penney.
Their mission? To turn Randell’s screened-in porch into a family-friendly space that would serve the needs of her 9-year-old son Max, who has Canavan disease, an inherited disorder that causes progressive damage to nerve cells in the brain.
THE PROBLEM:
Although the screened porch was one of the reasons Mike and Illyce Randell had bought their Buffalo Grove home, the family had been unable to use it for the last three or four years.
“It had a great big hot tub built into the porch, which Max would use once a week with his therapist,” Illyce Randell says. “Eventually, as Max grew bigger, it became physically impossible to get him into the tub.”
After Max graduated to a larger wheelchair, it became more and more difficult to get him into the room.
“The doorway was too narrow for his new wheelchair and the track on the bottom of the wheelchair [which locks into Randell’s car] kept getting caught in the tracks of the sliding glass door,” Randell says. “In order to get outside, you’d have to go through two sets of sliding-glass doors.”
No longer able to get Max onto the porch, the Randells drained the now-broken hot tub, closed up the room and built a long walkway to the back yard from a side door.
With all their money going toward Max’s care and the foundation they created to research Canavan disease (canavanresearch.org), a room renovation was a distant dream.
THE FIX:
Enter HGTV designer Pedersen and her team of workers, who decided the old screened porch, just off the kitchen, had the makings of a family room.
The first order of business? Get rid of that space-robbing hot tub built into the corner of the room and replace it with built-in cabinets and bookcases.
The four sets of sliding-glass doors also had to go, but Pedersen didn’t want to lose the sunny feeling in this room. So she replaced the sliding doors that led to the yard with wheelchair-friendly French doors.
The glass door that connected the porch to the kitchen was removed altogether and suddenly, what was once an exterior room was now an interior room.
Since the porch had been built on a concrete slab, the team installed new insulation in the sub-floor and then covered it with floating, engineered hardwood flooring. Baseboard heating was added to make the room cozy in the winter, and a window air conditioning unit was installed to keep it cool in the summer.
Finally, the porch’s rustic rough cedar wood ceiling — which gave it a dreary, dated feel — was sealed, caulked and sprayed a glossy white.
New track lighting and a beautiful lantern chandelier provided the finishing touches for the Randells’ new 400-square-foot family room, completed just in time for Mother’s Day.
THE CHALLENGE:
Although Randell knew she had won the room makeover, she wasn’t allowed any viewings until the project was complete. So for Mike Randell, who served as homeowner-consultant throughout the construction process, the challenge was to keep his wife from peeking (just in case she was tempted, the sliding-glass door that led to the porch was painted black).
But for Pedersen and her crew, the biggest challenge was time.
“We started work on a Friday afternoon and finished on a Wednesday,” Pedersen says. “Everything we ordered had to be in stock, from the furniture that JC Penney donated to the cabinetry from Lowe’s.”
With a deadline looming, Pedersen decided to call in a few favors.
“I had Supreme Novelty Fabrics make the draperies, and they literally sewed all night long for three nights,” she says. “Pella donated the windows and doors. I ordered them on a Thursday and even though they were custom sizes, they shipped the next day.”
Despite the time crunch, Pedersen had to be mindful of the master plan.
“We needed a layout that would work aesthetically and yet be functional for Max,” she says. “The doorways needed ramps and we had to allow for a 3-foot path in the room for the wheelchair. There were a lot of little details like that.
“At the same time, we wanted to create a beautiful room for the Randells, something you’d dream your family room would look like.”
THE DETAILS:
– Illyce Randell wanted plenty of storage for her younger son Alex’s art supplies, so out went the hot tub and in went a new corner unit of built-in maple cabinetry. With no time for special orders, Pedersen went with in-stock kitchen cabinets and dressed them up with special toe-kicks, trim work, and black iron handles.
– With no pesky metal tracks to deal with anymore, brand new French doors make life a lot easier for the Randell family. These extra-wide out-swing doors now make it possible to wheel Max out to the patio.
-When the Randells originally put in their hardscape, they ran out of money and had to settle for a small patio. No more settling: Pedersen and her team doubled the size of the patio and added new outdoor furniture, a stainless steel grill and a built-in fire pit.
– Dark walnut engineered wood floors set off the wheat-toned sisal rug and light maple cabinetry.
– Baseboard heating and a window air-conditioning unit make the room usable year-round without raising the Randells’ property taxes.
THE MATERIALS:
– A relatively simple palette of wheat and black reads casual yet modern — and ensures that color matching will be mistake-free. “There aren’t a whole lot of varieties in shades of black,” Pedersen says.
– The walls were painted in Benjamin Moore’s Stonehouse, Pedersen’s go-to color time and time again.
– An olive green microfiber sectional (Studio by JC Penney Home Collection) provides a punch of color in the room — as well as plenty of space to lounge. Best of all, it’s completely washable.
– A black painted armoire (Chris Madden for JC Penney Home Collection) houses the TV and provides a focal point for the room.
The black painted coffee table, with its oversize tray top, was snapped up for a song at The Great Outdoors. “It was the only one in the store and people were literally trying to buy it from us on the way out,” Pedersen says.
– The room’s design statement flows out to the patio, with a black wrought iron table and chairs and two black painted rocking chairs.
– Virtually all of the accessories in the family room — from the oversize Roman clock that rests on top of the armoire to the decorative pieces that grace the bookcases — come from Expo Design Center, The Great Indoors or Home Goods. “If you can’t find accessories at one of these stores, there’s something wrong with you,” Pedersen says.
– Pedersen loved the lantern-style chandelier she found at Expo ($250), but not its bronze finish. With no time to shop around, Pedersen bought the light fixture anyway — and spray-painted it black.
– Black and cream botanical drapery panels provided just the right feminine finish for this Mother’s Day room makeover.
THE COST:
Pedersen estimates the entire project cost about $45,000, which was underwritten by HGTV and Lowe’s; with donations from JC Penney, Pella Windows and Georgia Pacific.
THE VERDICT:
“This room makeover has enabled our whole family to be in one area comfortably now,” Ilyce Randell says. “There’s a lot of floor space, so we can bring the wheelchair in and move Max to the couch or he can stand up in a stander. If we have people over, then Max can be in his wheelchair and be with everyone. It’s just a lot easier now.”
But convenience isn’t the only reason Randell likes the new family room.
“When they cut the ribbon and I saw the room, I was astounded at how beautiful it was,” she says. “It looked like something out of a magazine.”
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Tricks of the trade
Designer Monica Pedersen shares tips and tricks she used to make the Randell family room user-friendly and barrier-free.
1. Pedersen loved the lantern-style chandelier, but not its bronze finish. With no time to shop around, Pedersen bought the light fixture anyway–and spray-painted it black.
2. A relatively simple palette of wheat and black reads casual yet modern–and ensures that color matching will be mistake- free.
3. She replaced the sliding doors that led to the yard with wheelchair-friendly French doors.
4. “I had Supreme Novelty Fabrics make the draperies, and they literally sewed all night long for three nights,” Pedersen says.
5. The floor was covered with floating engineered hardwood flooring.
