“We have an old house in a new shell,” says Mark Brunsvold with a chuckle as we sit in the newly remodeled (and newly expanded) eat-in kitchen in their 1950 rambler, a glorious view of the glistening Minnehaha Creek is visible from an expansive sliding glass door.
“It kind of all started with a desire to put in new windows,” adds Mark’s wife, Vicki. “But one thing just led to another, and now we have pretty much redone the whole house; the only room that hasn’t changed is the dining room.”
Having been through a large project before (the couple completed a tear-down in Hilldale and built from the ground up), they weren’t anxious to dip their toes in the remodeling/construction pool, but once they started thinking about it, it just seemed the right thing to do and the right time in which to do it.
Mark and Vicki’s three daughters, Amanda, Pieper and Sydney, were all in their 20s, and, as happens with many families, their housing needs changed. Pieper was getting married, and Mark and Vicki knew they wanted more room for the young couple when they came into town (Pieper is in graduate school in Iowa and her husband, Ben, is in dental school), not to mention the possibility of grandchildren somewhere down the line. Sydney, their youngest, is a recent graduate of Gustavus Adolphus, and would be in and out of the home.
But it is with their oldest child Amanda in mind that they carefully ruminated on exactly how they needed their new old house to function. Amanda has RETT Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopment disorder that almost exclusively affects girls and causes loss in motor function, speech, cognition, and makes it very difficult for them to ambulate; stairs are pretty much out of the question.
“If we were upstairs and wanted to have a family night or movie night, we’d have to carry Amanda up and down the stairs,” says Mark. “Not only was it dangerous for Amanda if we would have ever missed a step, but we’re not getting any younger either.”
So, with the wise guidance and counsel of their builder, Scot Waggoner of WB Builders, they added an elevator. “He told us it would be much easier to put the elevator in then as opposed to later on down the line,” says Vicki. “So, we designed the house around that. We are so thankful we listened to Scot; it’s one of the best and most-used features of the house.”
Besides the elevator, an additional six feet was added to the back of the home, which allowed them to put in their gourmet kitchen and large center island (“Vicki is a great cook, and I selfishly knew that if she loved the kitchen, she would cook more,” says Mark). They also shifted the stairway back, expanded Amanda’s bedroom to allow space for a caregiver, and incorporated a completely accessible bathroom into her bedroom. They also gave the lower level a total re-do, and much to Mark’s chagrin because he really loved the boiler system, they installed a brand new HVAC system as the old one was kaput.
In case you’re wondering, they added those new windows, too.
But like most projects such as this one, it wasn’t easy. Mark, Vicki and Amanda spent four months sharing one bedroom, and made quick dinners and retrieved beverages from the microwave and refrigerator in the garage. “Yes, it was cozy,” says Vicki.
They’re trying to gear up for the last phase of the project, which will include building a deck, finishing the exterior and getting the yard landscaped with pavers so Amanda can have full access to the yard.
“We designed it so we can live here as long as possible, and when Vicki and I can’t, Amanda can still be here with caretakers,” says Mark. “The bottom line is that we really just wanted to create a living space that the whole family can enjoy; even though Amanda is nonverbal, you can tell by her whole demeanor that she thinks it’s the cat’s meow.”
