When we bought our house in 2003, we loved the vintage style, but also knew there were many things we wanted to update. The downstairs bathroom was on our list, but it’s taken nearly 20 years to be a top priority.
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Stacey LaraLatest articles
Blissful Laundry Room Renovation – 9 Key Elements
Laundry rooms come in various sizes with a variety of amenities, facilitating a number of tasks to make your life easier. Much more than just washing and drying clothes. They’re an investment that will do a lot of...
Old Fir’s New Home
In today’s story, Old Fir completes its transformational journey and joins an ensemble cast including windows, shingles, lighting, address numbers, a flag holder, and a new deck with a gate in a front-wall beach cottage...
Beauty, Creativity and Efficiency – Attached Dwelling Units (ADUs)
In this blog post, we’d like to give you an idea of what it’s like to add an ADU or DADU (Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit) to your residential property, to help you make an educated decision about whether this is a...
Navigating a Home Remodel/Building Addition
A successful remodel or addition starts with hearing the client’s problems, creating design solutions that demonstrate a clear understanding of their goals, and developing a plan to execute the project successfully...
Tips for Living Through Your Home Renovation Project
With ongoing noise and dust, I’m well prepared to tell you what it’s like, share a few tips, and reassure you that living at home while construction is in progress is ultimately worth it!
Preparing for Your Home Renovation
Preparing for construction during a pandemic can be quite challenging, but we hope these tips and insights will help you prepare ahead of time, at your pace, finding as much fun and creativity in the process as possible.
Transforming a 1950s Indoor BBQ Into a New Fireplace
THE HISTORY IS ALWAYS FUN Our 1956 rambler has been an ongoing project for my husband and I since we moved in nearly 20 years ago. While I work as an architect professionally, I moonlight as a phase-by-phase architect...
Excavating, Renovating and Adding to your Basement in your 100-year-old Seattle Home
In the neighborhoods of Seattle, we find an abundance of beautiful homes around the 100-year-old mark. With the city’s tech and innovation companies bringing so much growth, many are looking at options for updating...
Walk-In Pantry 2021 – The New High Traffic Home Area
As life has transitioned over the last year, so many perspective changes have settled in to create our new norm. This has definitely been a factor in our work here at AKJA, as we support our clients in creating the...
Transformation Series – #1 Home Library
When my husband and I bought this house back in 2003, we knew it was a good space. This mid-century modern home was built in 1953, designed by a Boeing engineer at the time. While the vintage charm was and continues to...
The New Home Office – Turning Workspace into Your Workplace
It’s no longer news that 40% of the American workforce is now working from home. According to Forbes, this is up from 5%, which it was prior to Covid. And according to multiple news sources, interest in homeschooling...
Consider Water-Based Stains for Your Deck
A few weeks ago, I was re-introduced to water-based wood stain, and the product caught my attention. For years, I’ve been specifying the tried-and-true Cabot’s semi-solid linseed oil-based stains, and I love this...
Light and Paint
The types of lighting specified for homes is quite different from the lighting used in an office or at your local grocery store. At our entries, we want ample lighting to welcome visitors, in our living rooms we want...
Luxury Kitchens: Explore this Option Before you Select Induction Cooktops
Induction cooking is the second innovative technology that’s gaining momentum in modern kitchen designs. These ceramic glass cooktops look like the continuous glass electric cooktops; however, they perform quite...
Modern Technology to consider for your new kitchen: Combination Convection Steam Oven
If you are planning a new kitchen as part of your home renovation project, there is a healthy innovative cooking technology on the market that I recommend researching. It is the versatile combination convection-steam...
