project spotlight: the stahr renovation

project spotlight

being your own architect: the stahr renovation

In 2015, after many years of renting various homes in various locations, resident Studio21 architect, Gregg Stahr, and his wife, Tiffany, decided to take the proverbial leap into homeownership. They chose a small Cape Cod-style home in Wheaton, for two reasons in particular: First off, Tiffany had lived in Wheaton before, and from her experience there, she knew that the town was a perfect place to raise their children; Second, the home itself—albeit small—provided everything they needed at 
the time for their family. It was also a nice upside that the original home was set up well for an eventual remodel and add-on.

3D Rendering of the Stahr Renovation

Being the architect that he is, Gregg was already investigating potential designs for a renovation and addition after mere months of moving in, even with the agreement between the pair being that inevitable construction wouldn’t begin for at least a few more years. The original home had four bedrooms, two on the first floor and two on the second—perfect for the couple and their three young children. The two second floor bedrooms were tucked under the sloping roof lines typical of Cape Cod homes, and while not an issue at the time, the lack of a bathroom upstairs would grow into a problem as the kids got older. Downstairs, the major issue centered around the kitchen and dining area. It was too small for two people to comfortably prepare a meal and too small to fit the whole family around the table for dinner.
They explored the idea of splitting the addition projects into first and second floor phases, as the construction requirements were independent of one another, but ultimately, the two decided that living with what they had for a little longer was a more enticing fate than enduring multiple construction projects. After additional delays due to the recent pandemic, 2022 was the golden year for the renovation. Actual construction began in late Fall of 2022, and as it stands now [February 2023], they are at the halfway point. 
Whether it’s a remodel, an addition, or a custom home started from scratch, building your dream home is tremendously inspiring at the same time as it is immensely arduous. The end result of a dream home is something that most of us hope to one day get to, but that end result does not come without its own snags along the way. Being the architect on your own home offers a unique perspective on the remodeling process, so we asked Gregg about his experience so far:

STUDIO21 ARCHITECTS: LET’S START WITH THE BASICS: WHAT SPARKED THE IDEA TO RENOVATE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Gregg Stahr: We knew when buying the house that the goal was grow the house with us as the kids grew up. If for any reason that became impossible, we would have sold and searched for a new home that suited our needs better.

S21: WHAT WAS ON YOUR RENOVATION WISH LIST? WHAT ABOUT THE WISH LIST OF THE FAMILY?

GS: My wife [Tiffany] and I have always been pretty in sync with what we want in a home, and while it is fun to dream bigger than reality, we have always stayed pretty grounded in the basics. That said, our wish list was very much a team effort, probably only differing slightly in the priorities of the list.
As described above, the two main issues with the existing house that we knew we needed to change were expanding the kitchen and dining space, and adding a bathroom to the second floor. We went through dozens of design options to address these issues, at the bare minimum. What we discovered through the design process was that the first floor had to be expanded to make for a better kitchen and dining space; there was simply no room in the house to renovate from within and still accomplish what we needed. The second floor was different as we knew that a simple dormer addition would allow for space for a bathroom; we knew, deep down, if we really wanted to make this our “forever” home, we needed to put all three kids’ bedrooms upstairs with a new bathroom. This meant taking the entire roof off and starting from scratch on the second floor. This would also allow us to use the space of the original two bedrooms on the first floor to create more of a master suite.
After going through dozens more designs with this in mind, we knew this was best route to take, not only for us, but creating a home that had lasting value in the future. All of this was done in our first year living in the home, and made us aware that we needed to wait a few years before taking on such a big project. 

S21: SINCE YOU’RE THE ARCHITECT, DID THE FAMILY MOSTLY DEFER TO YOU AND YOUR EXPERTISE, OR WERE THERE SOME PARTS OF THE RENOVATION THAT YOUR FAMILY ABSOLUTELY DIDN’T WANT TO COMPROMISE ON?

September 2022: Pre-Construction

GS: Ha! I may be the architect, but my role certainly was more to put options on paper and to say “no, that won’t be possible” when needed. Again, our wish list was a team effort that was pretty well agreed upon.
I think my only wish outside of the wish list items, was to create a unique home exterior that would stand out in the neighborhood— in a good way of course. Tiffany would have loved a true master bathroom and a separate powder room on the first floor. While we added square footage to the home, we simply were not adding enough to make that  

happen. The compromise was making a walk-through closet from our room to access the bathroom directly, while still maintaining a door to the bathroom from the hallway.

S21: AS AN ARCHITECT, I’M SURE ONE OF THE SKILLS YOU’VE DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS IS BEING ABLE TO GUIDE YOUR CLIENTS THROUGH ANY STRESSES THAT POP UP ALONG THE WAY. DO YOU THINK THAT MADE YOU FEEL MORE CONFIDENT IN GUIDING YOUR OWN FAMILY THROUGH POTENTIAL STRESS?

GS: It’s interesting because you would certainly think that to be the case, but it has gone a little differently. I think that with knowing what I know about the process, the ups and downs and the inevitable pitfalls that come with home renovations, I have been way more stressed than my family. Constantly thinking about what comes next, what might be uncovered, what delays may happen, and the weather—my God, the uncontrollable weather—have kept me very on edge. Tiffany and I have joked about it several times; our roles have completely reversed during this process. I am usually the calm, level-headed one that tries to de-stress all situations, while Tiffany will, self-admittedly, stress out more on certain things. 
To her credit, she has been amazing through this process, understanding what can be controlled will be controlled and what cannot will be dealt with, all while doing her best to keep me calm when I am freaking out.

S21: HOW HAS THE FAMILY FARED THROUGH THIS WHOLE PROCESS?

GS: So we have three children, our oldest being thirteen, our middle at eleven, and our youngest at eight. They have all handled this disruption to their lives a bit differently. We knew going into this that this was construction project that would not allow to live in the house while it was going on. Thankfully we have great family in the near suburbs giving us a place to stay while this is all going on. There is no bigger benefit than free accommodations while living through a stressful construction project; not everyone has that and we are forever grateful. Of course, there are added difficulties being displaced from your home, especially with children who are involved in a myriad of activities outside of school. Tiffany and I would not think for a second of having the kids suspend involvement in the things they enjoy, so all of the additional travel time to things that are usually five minutes away from the house has been a bit exhausting. Our general weekly routine beyond school and work; soccer and volleyball practices, orchestra rehearsals, etc. has required a lot of extra planning. Not being able to simply drop the kids at practice and come back to pick them up due to extended travel time has had us spending a lot of time sitting in cold cars this winter. ​

​As for the kids; our youngest daughter has acclimated quite well to sharing a room with her brother in order to give our teenager the one spare room to herself. Seeing the construction through the excited eyes of an eight-year-old has been fun. One of the most stressful times of the construction thus far was after removing the roof, and struggling to tarp the entire home before a storm. I took her to the house to take a look at how the tarp was holding up, and she thought it was so cool to stand on what was the old second floor with 

November 2022: Demolition!

just a tarp tented over her head. Those were fun moments. The rain that leaked through the tarp and the then the tarp ripping clear in half a day later in a wind storm, not so fun.
​Our eleven-year-old son is our creature of habit. While he likes the idea of a new and improved home, in his mind this was all unnecessary. Seeing the home torn apart during demo and damaged by rain with no roof to protect was very traumatizing to him. In his eyes he believed that the home could never be put back together. It wasn’t until framing was complete and he could walk into the space that would become his new room that we finally saw a smile for the first time in the process. Prior to that he didn’t even want to drive by and see the house on the way to school because it upset him. Again, now that a roof is on and things are progressing inside, he has been more on board with the project and asking questions about what comes next. 
Our thirteen-year-old has acted like the standard teenager through much of this. Often unimpressed and not too interested in what is happening, though to her credit, she has been helpful with all of the strange schedules and running around. She has enjoyed putting together ideas on how to finish her new room which will be the teenage sanctuary that we are sure she will rarely leave for the next few years when at home.

S21: ARE THERE ANY ASPECTS OF BEING YOUR OWN ARCHITECT THAT HAVE SURPRISED YOU THROUGH THIS PROCESS?

December 2022: One of many attempts to protect the house from the winter weather.

GS: The most difficult part has certainly been the stress during the time that our home had no roof to protect from the elements. The roof was taken off right at Thanksgiving, and usually this is not a bad time of year for your home to be open to the elements. The weather is typically colder and dryer, and if it snows that can be easier to manage. Unfortunately for me, our December was one of the wettest, rainiest Decembers I can remember.
​I was constantly glued to weather forecasts, and constantly trying to fix and rearrange tarps in what became fruitless efforts to keep the remaining parts of

the home dry. The weather is uncontrollable and unpredictable, and running around catching rain drops does not work very well. As my carpenter said when he’d see me running around the house during a storm, “here comes the bucket brigade!”
While my efforts probably did keep hundreds if not thousands of gallons of water from damaging my home, there were still hundreds, and probably thousands that did. I didn’t sleep well for over a month during this portion, and not a wink when storms were in the forecast. Thankfully we were gutting most of the first floor as well as the basement. The damage caused by weather will add cost. It is an unfortunate reality to construction. These are things that cannot be controlled and construction, especially on existing homes, needs to have this factored in. We have made some decisions to cut costs in other areas to ease the additional costs into our budget and we keep moving forward. While other stresses have come and will continue, as is the nature of construction, I will say that ever since the roof was framed, windows installed, and we became 99% weather tight, I have gotten better sleep.

S21: WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST REWARDING PART?

GS: So far the most rewarding day I’ve had through this process was taking the kids to the house shortly after the roof was finished being framed. At that point you could walk through all the new and remodeled spaces and really start to get a feel for what the house was going to be. It was the first time that I could see the excitement in all the kids faces at once as they walked into their future bedrooms. Until that point, it was hard to know how much they understood about what the house was going to become. We constantly were looking at the plans and describing the spaces to them, but 

March 2023: Framing complete; halfway there!

just like most people, they had trouble understanding and visualizing what a plan on paper would actually look like built. Being able to physically walk into rooms and spaces brought it all to reality. We took a picture of each kid standing in the doorway of their framed-up rooms with big smiles on their faces—even the teenager, and it is something I will never forget.

​A BIG THANK-YOU TO GREGG STAHR AND HIS FAMILY FOR THIS INTERVIEW; A HOME RENOVATION IS A HUGE CHANGE AND CAN BE A LONG JOURNEY, SO WE GREATLY APPRECIATE YOU CHATTING WITH US. BEING THE ARCHITECT FOR YOUR OWN HOME OFFERS A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE FROM BOTH ANGLES, WHICH WILL ABSOLUTELY LEND SOME INSIGHT INTO THE JOURNEY OF DESIGN. 
STAY TUNED, FOR IN THE COMING MONTHS, WE WILL REVISIT GREGG AND HIS PROJECT, SO THAT WE CAN HEAR ABOUT HOW THE FINAL HALF OF THE PROJECT WENT…AND SEE THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

---

written by: emma Halliday

Emma works as the Marketing Coordinator at Studio21 Architects. For each of our newsletters, Emma conducts interviews, writes articles, and formats the pages to make sure they reflect the great design we value so strongly at this firm. She may not be an architect, but she certainly makes sure that the marketing materials have architect-worthy design as well!