Change of Plans: Investment Becomes the Family Home

It was an investment, a home to fix up and resell. At least, that’s what Martha Whitley planned when she and her sister, Cheryl Barnes, bought the 1946 brick Colonial at 600 W. Windsor Avenue in 2005. But once she started renovating the house for resale, the kitchen designer with five kids—a set of triplets and a set of twins—fell in love with the home, and decided to stay.

“I loved the location, the neighborhood, but the house was just a box,” said Martha, who had upgraded and sold three homes as investments on her own before buying the Windsor Avenue home with Cheryl.  “I’ve always loved buying homes and fixing them up. On this home we planned to add a room in the back and fix it up. We expected we would sell it within two years.”

When she bought the home, it was relatively small and simple: a kitchen, living room/dining room combination and office/mudroom on the first level, and three bedrooms with a bath on the second floor. But as Martha progressed with the renovation, her feelings about the house changed, and she began to envision a more extensive change. “I decided to buy the house myself and make it larger,” Martha said.   

Martha, an owner/designer with the kitchen and bath firm Montague Branch Cabinetry, designed the renovation, which included a three-story addition on the back of the house, and a one-story addition on each side. The first level now has a kitchen with breakfast bar and casual sitting/eat-in space, and a dining room, family room, living room, office, and half-bath. The second floor has four bedrooms, and three baths. Martha converted the attic space to a kid’s playroom, and in the basement built a recreation room with a wet bar and a bedroom. “Now I’ve got five bedrooms and five kids,” she noted. “Each has his own space.”

When Martha first modernized the kitchen, it was with the goal of reselling the home. “But, luckily, I also loved it for myself,” she noted. She chose solid cherry slab cabinets and African slate for the floor. “The floor is one of my favorite features,” she said. “There is a slate patio just outside the kitchen/family room area, and I didn’t want hardwood because of the traffic with five kids. The slate hides everything, and it picks up earth tones and the color of the cabinets.” Martha chose to finish the walls with grass cloth to provide warmth against the floors.

Martha’s goal was for the expanded home to look modern yet traditional, with clean, uncluttered lines. She followed some of the original features—such as repeating the arched openings used in original rooms with some of the new rooms—but also added new looks.

One change was to create a back-of-the-house family room with walls of custom windows. Another was to give a new spin to the floors by staining them ebony and finishing them with a high gloss. In the foyer, Martha had an artist paint a dark green and cream-colored circle pattern on the bare, stained floors, an accent inspired by a design she had seen years earlier and kept in her “big binder of great ideas.”  The high-gloss finish creates a clean, contemporary feel.

Martha also bucked tradition when she added a fireplace to her master bedroom, and chose a wall-mounted gas fireplace rather than a traditional one. “It’s very modern,” Martha noted. “I kept it high on the wall so that I could see it from my bed.”

Martha said her children also love the whole process of renovation and construction, and have helped with some projects. One was a windowed, lapboard shed in her yard. “We’d done a slab for a back yard shed when we redid the house, but it took a few years for us to finish it off,” she said. “A couple years ago we dove in, and my sons and I built the shed together. The only help was from a roofer.”

Martha’s home—already lively with five children—has become a gathering place for kids.  Popular features include the back yard putting green and the basketball court. “With the big screen TV, the basement is house central for kids coming over,” Martha added. “I wanted this to be a house that all the kids went to.”

Martha’s family, including her mother and siblings, who live in the area, are also frequent visitors. “About once a month we have everyone over—about 15 to 20 people,” Martha noted. “This is very much a family home, and that was my intent.”

Although she has loved living in the Windsor Avenue home, Martha said she and her children are ready for another project. “I’m always excited for a new project,” she noted. “I have my eye on a couple possibilities.”

The house is now for sale for $1,099,000 through Phyllis Patterson with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.