The kitchen transformation.
The kitchen looked newly renovated when we bought the house, but the shortcuts surfaced quickly: a failing floor, inexpensive finishes, and a layout that never felt right for a 1919 home. We took it back to the structure and rebuilt it with intention, creating a bright, classic space with checkerboard floors, custom cabinetry, and warm brass details.
Read the full kitchen story →
Four transformations, one evolving home.
From major structural work to smaller rooms with big personality, each project is another chapter in the house’s ongoing story.
Pick the story that pulls you in.
Start with the dramatic rebuild, the moodiest room, or the smallest space with the biggest personality.
The Kitchen
A failing floor, awkward layout, and a room rebuilt from the structure up.
See the transformation →The Library
A neutral sitting room turned into a deep-green retreat wrapped in custom millwork.
Enter the library →The Pantry
A former laundry room became a cheerful, highly personal little workhorse.
See the pantry →Building the house journal.
We’re documenting the projects, details, traditions, and little decisions that shape the house — one finished room, one ongoing project, and one good story at a time.
The Pantry
A former laundry room became a bright, hardworking pantry with yellow walls, dark cabinetry, warm wood shelves, brass details, and a little lemon-fueled whimsy.
Read the pantry story →Steve & CJ
We believe a home is at its best when it is lived in fully: dinners around the table, friends at the door, music in the background, seasonal traditions, and always another project waiting in the wings.
Our home was built in 1919 in Detroit’s Boston-Edison Historic District. We see ourselves as the latest caretakers of a house with more than a century of stories behind it — preserving what gives it character while continuing to make it unmistakably ours.
Historic bones, thoughtful updates, and plenty of life in between.
The goal is not to turn the house into a museum. It is to respect what came before while creating a home that feels beautiful, useful, welcoming, and entirely alive today.
A little more of the story, in real time.
Renovation progress, finished rooms, seasonal moments, and the occasional detail that deserves its own post. We share the less-polished version of life at the house on Instagram.
Still evolving, one season at a time.
There will always be something changing here — a room refreshed, a garden growing in, a new holiday tradition, or another reason to fill the house with people we love.
The journal will grow right along with the house.