Dream Come True

It’s a tale as old as time. A young couple marries and buys their first home. They’re full of ideas and dreams about their future, their lives, and their home improvement projects. Some of the dreams come true. Some of them change over time. And some of them get put on hold.

For one Des Moines couple, all those things were true. They moved into their home. They pursued their careers. And they started a family. Many of their dreams came true. Many of the dreams for the house were put on hold.

Last year the couple contacted Woodharbor and made that last dream a reality.

“The original kitchen was very small and sort of a maze,” the homeowner says. “We had a small dining area and a doorway into the kitchen, but there was a wall right inside the kitchen because there was a closet on the other side. There was maybe 3 feet of space from one side of the kitchen to the other.”

Based on a friend’s recommendation, the homeowners met with Jammie Pekarek from Woodharbor and gave her two primary items for their kitchen wish list.

“They wanted to open everything up, and they didn’t want anything dark,” Pekarek says. “But opening it up involved some very precise structural changes, which affected the attic above and the exterior of the home, too.”

What had originally been a screened porch at the back of the home had been enclosed by previous owners. The homeowners wanted to open the existing dining area to that space as well.

“The ceilings weren’t the same height, and the original rafters above were floating rafters. So there was a lot of structural work to be done sort of behind the scenes,” says Pekarek.

Although the opened-up space benefits from natural light most of the day, the homeowners wanted the new kitchen to have lighter color finishes but not white. Pekarek recommended soft gray-painted cabinetry, creamy white quartz countertops with a subtle gray vein, and a light stain on the new wood floors to blend them seamlessly with existing wood floors in the adjoining hallway and living room.

“We more than doubled the storage space,” says the homeowner, “and I just love all cabinet features. We have pull-out drawers everywhere, so much pantry space, and the swivel pull-out in the corner cabinet is a lifesaver.”

Pekarek says there are so many smart storage options available in cabinetry that homeowners can customize their storage to suit their specific needs. “We used pull-out drawers for heavy pots and pans, roll-outs for every cabinet, even pull-out racks for overhead cabinets to make them more user-friendly,” she says.

“Everyone at Woodharbor was so wonderful to work with,” say the homeowners. “We’d waited so long to do this that we really wanted to be sure we were going to love every detail, and they were very patient with us. They even changed the backsplash tile halfway through the installation when it looked too dark once it was up on the wall.”

Pekarek says the hardware she suggested for the cabinets was a happy coincidence, but it also demonstrates how well she understood the homeowners’ tastes. “I had this hardware in mind. When the homeowners showed me the light fixture they had picked out for the dining area, it was the same finish and the same style as the hardware. Now it looks like it belongs together.”

The kitchen island was another dream come true, thanks to West End Salvage in Des Moines.

“We found this butler’s pantry hutch that had been removed from an old house,” says the homeowner, “and we just fell in love with it. We wanted the kitchen island to have a similar look. Not only did West End Salvage create trim that was missing from the original hutch, but they built the kitchen island to look like it was built by the same person. They even found hardware to match.”

The homeowners say everyone involved in the project from the subcontractors and installation crews to the skilled craftsmen and designers far exceeded their expectations.

“They gave us everything we asked for and more,” the homeowner says. “Now I can cook and have the whole family here together. And we can sit at the table and look out at the backyard. It’s just what we dreamed it would be.”

Fulfilling their remaining dream may have taken a few decades longer than they expected. But for this Des Moines couple, it was a dream worth waiting for. •