One previous owner had extended the living room by about 10 feet, and the Finnies converted a storage area into a bathroom, but otherwise the original dimensions remain. This means they downsized to 1,500 square feet from their 1,800-square-foot home. But with two young kids, they wanted two bathrooms upstairs, which meant their trusted tradespeople had to get creative.
“It was very compartmentalized, and we opened it up,” Brittany says of the main floor’s living, kitchen and dining area. “But it was pretty challenging, considering we were adding two bathrooms, because we only had the one wall to get all the mechanical work up to the second floor.”
The solution was to drop the ceiling above the kitchen-dining area 15 centimetres, connect it to the “one wall” that runs up to the second floor, and “cram all the mechanical and plumbing into that space,” Brett explains. Done poorly, a dropped ceiling could cramp an already cosy kitchen’s style, but with wooden beams both structural and decorative on each side, it works as a stylish solution.
A massive marble island is the focus of the main-floor space, and it sits atop a white oak herringbone floor. Brittany says she can’t wait to watch the floor and the island weather over the years. “It’s called patina-ing, where you intentionally let things age,” she explains. “That’s why I chose unlacquered brass knobs on the kitchen cabinets, and why I love real hardwood floors. Old houses that have 100-year-old hardwood look amazing to me — and if my kids dent it, who cares?”
She won’t have to wait 100 years for a patina to emerge on the furniture, because some of it is already that old. A large, old wooden dresser, made in Poland, sits in the front entrance; the Finnies bought it from another neighbour. The kitchen table is antique and chairs are ’50s vintage, too. “I love finding the gems, the things no one else will have, which might otherwise end up in the landfill,” Brittany says of her family’s frequent trips to Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, which sells donated home furnishings.