AFTER SPENDING TWO DECADES IN THEIR AMBLER HOME, these homeowners were ready to do away with the outdated kitchen, drafty sunroom, inadequate storage and poor traffic flow on the first floor. A neighbor’s referral led them to Harth Builders, a design-build remodeling  firm with an excellent reputation for executing projects of this scope.  

President Gregory Harth says a conversation with the clients revealed their frustrations with the kitchen and adjoining spaces, including an enormous center island that made navigating the room a challenge. They were also dissatisfied with a sunroom that was poorly insulated and uncomfortable. Other renovation objectives included relocating their powder and laundry rooms, which were awkwardly situated next to the sunroom. Their end goal was to create a stylish open floor plan with multiple seating areas for entertaining family and friends.

Structural elements had to be addressed to achieve this vision. Stephen Campbell, CR, design manager and architectural designer for Harth Builders, says the previous homeowners had remodeled the kitchen and built an addition. “The prior owners had installed an undersized drop wood beam to support the second floor. To correct the problem, we replaced it with a properly sized flush steel beam with an even longer span. We had to get creative and run plumbing through the web of the new beam to create a flush ceiling. We engineered this precisely after demolition to ensure the second  floor was properly supported, the pitches to the plumbing drains met codes and the end result looked clean and fantastic,” he shared.

Once the structural engineering was addressed, Harth Builders set to work relocating the powder and laundry rooms to a more central location and creating a  dining nook adjacent to the sunroom. Sunroom windows were replaced and the space was reinsulated. In the kitchen, Harth Builders created a new island with an offset angled, raised seating area. Cabinets are frameless European-style made of oak and feature book-matched grain slab-panel doors and drawers. Five-inch hardwood flooring in a warm brown stain with scraped surface unites the spaces and lends a rustic tone. Among the homeowners’ favorite features are the blue, elongated hexagonal, crackle-glass  tile backsplash and the Azurite granite countertop on the island.

Harth Builders
Spring House, Pa. | (215) 654-0364
HarthBuilders.com

Published (and copyrighted) in House & Home, Volume 21, Issue 2 (September 2020). 
For more info on House & Home magazine, click here. 
To subscribe to House & Home magazine, click here. 
To advertise in House & Home magazine, call 610-272-3120.