Modest Home Renovation Proves That Sometimes Less Is More

How do you make a great home even better?

Steve Hoedemaker, 51, an architect, and his husband, Thomas Swenson, a 36-year-old nurse anesthetist, started with detailed landscaping, including new dogwood trees, to update a well-preserved, 3,500-square-foot Northwest Regional-style home. The style is Washington state’s variation on Midcentury Modernism, combining local materials and far-eastern influences with the use of clean lines, walls of windows and a flowing floor plan.

The Seattle couple bought the three-bedroom, three-bathroom house in the summer of 2015 for $2.2 million, then spent about $250,000 on the upgrades.

Inside, they painted every surface, says Mr. Hoedemaker, and emphasized the style’s Asian pedigree with antique Japanese Tansu cabinets, known for their decorative ironwork.

The house was designed in 1966 by Seattle architect Ralph Anderson, a prime practitioner of the Northwest Regional style. Anderson (1924-2010) is admired for his midcentury homes, spread around greater Seattle, as well as for his preservationist projects in the city proper, including several in the Pike Place Market district.

Mr. Hoedemaker and Mr. Swenson are only the third set of owners of their home, and they say it was kept in superb condition. “It’s a house that was continuously loved,” says Mr. Hoedemaker, adding that they limited the refurbishment to what he calls the low-hanging fruit of refinishing and redecorating.

The house, which the pair share with two German Shorthaired Pointers, is in West Seattle, set on a bluff above a park with views of Puget Sound.

They planned to live mostly on the second floor of the two-story home, where the master bedroom and other major rooms are located. The lower level has two guest bedrooms and a utility room. Recently, however, the pandemic shutdown prompted them to convert one of the underused bedrooms into a home office.

The renovation has made certain existing elements shine: the dining room’s original tiles from northern California’s Heath Ceramics, the study’s cedar-front fireplace and built-in fir cabinets, and the cedar paneling throughout the upper floor.

Source: https://mansion.global/2ZoX3he