When Barak and Carrie Steenlage were newlyweds house-hunting in 2011, they fell in love with a 1939 Cape Cod in St. Louis Park.

The house wasnt perfect. But it had potential. We thought, It needs a little cosmetic work, said Carrie of the story-and-a-half home. But it has the bones of a good house.

Fairly soon after purchasing, Carrie and her mom painted the entire interior of the house. They had only recently finished that project, when the couple decided to tackle a much bigger one: remodeling the entire house. With plans to start a family, they knew they would soon need more space, and interest rates were attractively low. And Barak, who founded Anchor Builders in 2005 at the age of 23 with his brother John, had been renovating homes for years and was eager to work on a project for himself.

The tricky thing, and what would become the projects major challenge, was that the Steenlages wanted a two-story home with the feel of a story-and-a-half. It was important to them to maintain the footprint of the house and keep the character of the home in line with the rest of the neighborhood.

They didnt want a big house that towered over the neighbors, said Shelly Lindstrom, of Fluidesign Studio, the projects designer.

On the exterior, We wanted to make sure it didnt look like all roof.

Barak began a series of conversations with the subcontractor who was building the trusses. There was a lot of back and forth until I was able to get the trusses to look like I wanted, he said.

A front porch and a smaller gable over it, along with a dormer window and an arched portico, all helped break up the roofline.

The Steenlages also used a mixture of textures and materials on the exterior, such as shakes on the gables and two different sizes of siding.

Everything that can create contrast will just create more interest, said Lindstrom.

See the original post:
Builder remodels his own home in St. Louis Park

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