“It's perfect. I am going nowhere.”

The finished house, converted from a small ranch. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

No doubt about it. Pam Staun of Madeira likes her newly expanded home — even if it isn't yellow.

“I'm going to die here. This house is everything I've always wanted,” she says.

Granted, it took three sets of changes to the tiny Cape Cod built in the '50s on a hairpin turn of Shawnee Run Road to reach perfection. But that's no reflection of any indecision on Mrs. Staun's part. Her life just kept changing, and the house had to keep up.

The mother of two, originally from the west side, bought the tidy but “dinky” bungalow in the mid-80s because of its closeness to I-71 and her job as a hospital MRI technician.

“My family said, "What are you doing? This place is a dump.'

“But it was in fine shape — a kitchen, living room, bath and two bedrooms on the first floor with an unfinished second floor.

“I tore off the turquoise-colored tile on the walls and ripped up the linoleum, painted and decorated. It was livable and cute for me,” she says.

When her husband, Dave, with Unit Building Services, a design/build general contractor on Red Bank Road, entered the picture in 1991, they pushed the back out of the house and raised the roofline, added a front porch, windows and a master bedroom suite upstairs.

Son Ryan, 9, came and Mr. Staun worked from the second bedroom/office. When daughter Ali, 5, made an appearance, space above the garage was converted to an office and a family room was finished on the lower level.

But things were getting tight, and the Stauns began to look around for some breathing room. They liked the schools and the neighborhood, so they didn't look far.

What they found frustrated their budget.

“We decided it was cheaper to do another addition,” Mr. Staun says.

Cheaper to stay put

The couple sat down with architect Mike Wentz of Indian Hill in 2001 and crunched numbers and a wish list.

A large stone fireplace dominates the family room (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

The order: an open kitchen and great room all in one space, a master suite on the first floor, bedrooms and baths for the children, a screened-in porch.

“And we didn't want the addition to look like an addition,” says Mr. Staun.

Troublesome, but not impossible.

“It's real easy to take an ugly house and make it better,” says Mr. Wentz. “But they had a very well-proportioned Cape Cod that had been renovated very nicely.

“We obviously had new proportions to deal with. Incorporating a more formal roof line with steeper pitches into the existing Cape Cod style was a challenge. It required some modifications of the dormers as well as the creation of an entry dormer with a similar roof pitch,” he says.

Because the house is so close to the road, they were limited to expansion on one side and the back.

Once the design was approved, drawings done and construction started, things got ugly.

Because the family was living in the home, “we had to create a completely separate, independent structure then punch through and tie the two together,” Mr. Wentz says.

That meant family life took a nomadic turn with parents and kids sleeping on opposite ends of the house, toting belongings from room to room and sometimes communicating by walkie-talkies and monitors.

“The kids slept in the basement while the first floor was torn up and we were on the second,” says Mrs. Staun, admitting that made her a little jumpy. “The kids thought it was great.”

The mess was considerable, especially when remodelers broke through the addition wall and plaster rained.

A stainless steel Viking range is the centerpiece of the new kitchen. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

“Plaster rocks fell through cracks in the floor to the basement where the kids, the food and most of our stuff was,” says Mrs. Staun.

The vacuum cleaner became her best friend.

“At that point I thought, "This is the biggest mistake. Why did we ever do it,' ” she says.

“Many nights we spent till 11 or 11:30 p.m. piddling around doing things, painting a wall, putting up trim,” she says.

Due to Mr. Staun's experience in the construction business, the couple acted as their own contractors to save money.

“I always told my wife I wanted to build a new home. This is the closest I'll get to that,” Mr. Staun says.

“It's like selling a house yourself without a real estate agent,” says Mr. Wentz. “You can save money, but not without a few headaches.

“I think it took a little longer because they did it themselves, but at the same time, it allowed him (Mr. Staun) to do some planning and finishing the interior just the way he wanted.” (The renovation has taken about 18 months.)

“For the most part, they were able to stick to their original budget. You don't hear of too many people doing their own work and keeping on budget,” Mr. Wentz says.

The couple has tripled Mrs. Staun's original space — and investment — in the home.

The end is near

For the Stauns, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Just trim work, some carpeting and outside landscaping remain.

As a bonus to their original wish list, they got a mud room/laundry room (the old kitchen), a downstairs family room with a half-bath for the kids and guests, a formal living room in addition to the great room and a walk-in pantry.

The color scheme is the only adjustment Mrs. Staun had to make. She always wanted a yellow house.

“I just couldn't do that,” Mr. Staun says.

So they went with a clay color and darker trim and a lot of natural stone with Hardi Plank siding, a concrete board that comes primed to paint.

But Mrs. Staun is still smiling: She painted several interior rooms yellow.

Have you completed a home renovation in the past two years? Send suggestions to Joy Kraft, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330 e-mail jkraft@enquirer.com.

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