The Best of Old and New

Renovating an old house can be quite a challenge. Just ask Chris Pires and Kate Anderson of Columbia, who bought a nearly century-old home a year and a half ago. Pires, a biology professor at the University of Missouri, and Anderson, a librarian at the University's Health Sciences and Veterinary Medical libraries, could see the potential the home had and loved the central location in the Old Southwest. "I love that we can walk to work," Pires adds. "But when we bought this house, I knew it needed lots of work."

A Diamond in the Rough

Having remodeled their previous home in Madison, Wisconsin, the couple knew what they were getting into. And while the charm of an older home appealed to them, the house had many things that the couple knew they would be renovating. Before they first moved in, they had the front half of the home worked on, removing the old lathe and plaster walls and the paneling that had covered them, refinishing the floors and restoring period-style moulding and doors.

But larger work would need to be done to truly update the living spaces. The small rooms, choppy layout, antiquated fixtures and appliances, and previous remodeling efforts would need attention. Water damage would need repairing and the bathrooms would need updating. A dark single-story room used for storage hung off the back of the house, built over the foundations of porches that had once been there.

In early 2006, the couple began talking to friends about remodelers. Pires and Anderson had visited several homes that had done major remodeling with Kerry Bramon Remodeling and Design. "We wanted to maintain the house's historical integrity, and we liked what Kerry did in the homes we saw," Chris notes. "We talked to another contractor, but Kerry had done more projects in this immediate area, and they were more like what we were envisioning for our home."

Kate and Chris met with Kerry and in-house designer Angela Holloway, who was able to take their direction and elaborate upon it. "Angela would have ideas that we didn't have at all," says Kate. "We could then go back and put parts together that we liked." Over the course of several months, the couple was able to work collaboratively with KBRD to tweak their plans and budget into what they were looking for. The final space added 928 square feet of room, and most importantly – updated and integrated the living spaces between the two halves of the house.

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