REMODELING OUR FAMILY’S MIDCENTURY HOME: A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

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By Miriam Raftery

Photos by Wow Media and Miriam Raftery

November 8, 2024 (La Mesa, CA) -- The home that I grew up in is filled with warm memories—and now, a fully remodeled interior and exterior with open floorplan and a wealth of amenities -- ready for new homeowners to create memories of their own.

My brother and I inherited our childhood home at 5810 Marengo Avenue in La Mesa’s Lake Murray neighborhood. Our parents were the original owners when the house was built back in 1956; Eisenhower was president, sock hops were all the rage and Elvis Presley had just released his first gold album.

Since we each have homes of our own, my brother and I decided to sell the house we grew up in and fully remodel it, creating an open floorplan and modern conveniences while retaining elements of vintage charm that respect the home’s mid-century heritage.

We also wanted to be sure the remodel would be done right—no cutting corners on safety or quality issues, as some flippers are known to do. While overseeing a whole-house remodel isn’t for everyone, our family  has some helpful skills. My son has a civil engineering degree, my husband spent decades as a construction defect litigator, and I’ve written hundreds of articles on interior design and remodeling for home/garden magazines and newspapers.

Diantha Skeeter, owner of Chella Dia Interior Design, has created exquisite kitchens for celebrity chefs; her works have been featured in design magazines. Luckily, I met Diantha while choosing paint colors at Sherwyn Williams and was impressed with her expertise,  so we hired her to design a spacious new kitchen ideal for anyone who loves to cook or entertain. She also designed a master bath remodel and helped with interior design elements throughout the home.

We hired contractor Ben Wiatrak to remodel the entire house and bring our vision to life. Ben was easy to work with and very responsive to our needs. After the city signed off on an engineering report and architectural plans, we were ready to begin.

The original kitchen was small and cramped, with dark cabinets, aging tile countertops, and old, brown appliances. Removing a wall between the kitchen and a small dining room off the living room dramatically transformed the floorplan. Now, as you enter through the front door, you can see from the living room into a spacious new kitchen that flows into an adjacent family room crowned by vaulted wood ceilings. The family room has ample space for a large dining table as well as a seating and entertainment area.

The kitchen features an island with prep sink and a peninsula with bar seating. A second bar on the family room side provides extra seating and entertainment space. Stainless steel café appliances include a professional-style six-burner gas range (cooktop and large oven), refrigerator with French doors, and dishwasher with lighted interior. Since my own home has a double oven—my favorite feature—we also added a microwave that doubles as convection oven, broiler, and air fryer, built into the island.

White Shaker-style cabinets with brushed nickel door and drawer pulls in a classic style respect the home’s historical character, while quartz countertops with pale grey swirls provide a clean, contemporary element. We used sage and rosemary-hued accents in classic backsplash tiles and a painted island. Two pantries provide abundant storage. lights with mottled glass mimic similar glass in the home’s vintage Dutch door leading out to a large, covered patio. The kitchen and living room also have new recessed lighting that can adjust from warm to cool tones.

The family room was added by my parents in the 1970s for Mom, an artist, to use as an art studio. Originally it had dark paneled walls and only a small, high window along with sliding glass doors. We replaced the small window with a large picture window overlooking a beautiful pepper tree that Mom lovingly pruned into an idyllic shade tree.  Painting walls and ceiling white, while retaining dark beams, made the already large space feel even bigger.  Chandelier lights in a wheel-shape with light rustic finish provided dramatic illumination.

One of the hardest decisions for me was flooring. At first, I hoped to restore the original oak floors. But there was a lot of wear, and no guarantee that the old wood could be matched as we opened a wall and expanded the kitchen. So we opted to replace flooring throughout the home (except baths) with luxury vinyl-plank flooring that has the look and warmth of wood, but is easier to care for.

Both bathrooms also underwent major remodeling. The original master bath had a small shower that leaked and an out-of-date décor. Ben’s crew gutted the bathroom and Diantha designed an eye-catching new floorplan and décor that includes a large shower lined with faux-stone tiles and glass shower doors. A quartz-topped vanity, faux-stone backsplash, large framed mirror, new toilet and white storage cabinets are accentuated by slate-blue Debonair paint on walls. Visitors seeing the new master bath have typically reacted with a single word, “Wow!”

The guest bath sports a new charcoal-hued vanity, refinished vintage bathtub with new tile backsplash, and mist grey walls. Both baths also have new tile flooring, brushed nickel fixtures and new classic-style vanity lighting.

We used a pale greenish-gray Sea Salt paint in the master bedroom to create a serene spa-like feeling. All bedrooms now have ceiling fans with lights that can be set in warm or cool hues, new paint and refurbished closet doors.

The home has four bedrooms, but one has double doors that open to the living room as well as a rear door opening into a hallway. We chose a warm Canvas Tan paint for this room and staged it as a home office, though it could also be used as a guest room, bedroom, children’s play area, artist’s studio, music room, or any number of other options.

The rest of the interior is painted Dover White with Greek Villa paint on trim and interior doors. The front door, a solid wood-paneled door that my parents acquired from a friend with a door company, has been sanded down and painted with Mt. Aetna paint—a rich, deep green hue. 

Outside, we repainted the entire exterior, with two tones of beige for stucco and wood siding, and Alaster white trim.

A brand-new asphalt shingle roof in light hues reflects heat to help keep the home comfortable year-round. The house also has all-new white vinyl-clad, dual-paned windows throughout, which helps keep the home quiet and well-insulated, as well as picturesque.

The home was never ducted for central air conditioning, and had a wall AC unit in the family room.  We installed a new central heating and air conditioning unit and all-new ducting throughout the home,  as well as five ceiling fans including living room and all bedrooms. We added new brushed-nickel knobs on rows of cabinets lining the hallway along with the hall closet—abundant storage especially for a midcentury home.

The home’s raised-wood piers and posts needed repairs due to aging, tree roots, etc. so Top Tier Construction made repairs to the raised foundation and a minor repair to a concrete slab under the room addition.  We also removed popcorn ceilings, retextured and repainted them in the living room and hallway.  We tested for asbestos and hired an abatement company to remove the only asbestos found, in a bath floor and family room floor. 

As a child, I loved our home’s beautiful flower gardens and lawns.  But those were gone by the time my parents passed on, replaced by rocksin front that they wouldn’t have to maintain in their golden years. When we inherited the house, the backyard was weedy and vines had grown through a rear fence, pulling it down. We cleared away brush and weeds, trimmed trees and replaced the rear fence, adding a small wall behind with walkway on top for easy access to maintain shrubs and trees on the slope behind. Clipping back shrubbery also restored canyon views.

Mom used to water the entirefront and backyard by hand. To make life easier for the new homeowners, we hired DavidConnor from Bridgewater Construction to install an irrigation system with a timer for multiple lines, plant front and back lawns, regrade the yards, add mulch and decorative rocks.   

We also installed all new landscaping from Moon Nursery including flower-filled beds in front, lavender and rosemary beneath front windows, azaleas, and a flowering jacaranda tree on the sides of the home. As a nostalgic touch, we transplanted my grandmother’s irises beneath the jacaranda tree, in hopes the deep purple blooms will bring joy to future homeowners.

We built a new trellis beside the family room with a flowering vine, planted fragrant jasmine vines along the back fence, a privacy hedge, a bougainvillea with scarlet blooms alongside a storage shed, and added an orchard with four citrus trees for the next owners to harvest grapefruits, oranges, lemons and tangelos to suit their California lifestyle. New concrete pavers surrounded by stones lead out from family room to the backyard and nearby patio.

The patio also underwent a transformation.  We removed old screens to open it to the outdoors, replaced outdated siding and aging posts, added hurricane bolts, new lights, and paint, and filled in a dirt bed near the foundation with concrete.  Adding wicker porch furnishings and a bistro set with mosaic table as staging  beside the original brickchimney, along with rattan indoor-outdoor rugs and plants, created an idyllic outdoor living space.

We had the red brick chimney cleaned and inspected by San Diego Chimney Sweeps. They replaced a missing chimney cap, restored worn-away grout, and added a new flu liner. The fireplace restoration evoked memories of Dad building a roaring wood-burning fire on chilly fall nights our family gathered around the hearth, and later, bringing our own children over on holiday eves to enjoy fireside time together. I hope future owners will have similar cozy times together.

Our experienced broker, Bill Howland,and helpful real estate agent Lili Patch with RE/MAX, hired a stager to make the residence even more welcoming. She filled the home with inviting wood furnishings, fluffy pillows and accessories, plus, splashes of color in art and rugs to help prospective homeowners envision themselves living in this fully restored home. I staged the patio and porch, the latter now sporting a comfortable wooden bench, wicker runner and petite table.

The property is large, extending well into the canyon behind, plus a large side yard and backyard that wraps around the home on two sides. There’s ample space to build a large deck, add an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), swimming pool, children’s play area, dog run, vegetable gardens, or maybe even all of the above.

The remodel cost more than we anticipated, due to post-COVID inflation that drove up costs of construction materials, as well as unexpected issues that arose, such as needing to replace the roof, as well as most aging plumbing and major upgrades to electrical systems. But we believe the investment will prove worthwhile in the end, both financially and emotionally, seeing our childhood home beautifully transformed like a long-dormant butterfly emerging from a chrysalis.

I was delighted on a recent visit to see actual butterflies once again flitting among flower gardens in the front yard, as they did when I was a child. New green lawns have grown invitingly, conjuring up childhood memories of running and playing in the backyard with friends, picking fruit, reading beneath a shade tree, and savoring backyard barbecues.

As kids, we’d often walk   to Lake Murray a few blocks away, still a popular destination for hikers, fishermen and dogwalkers. The house is also close to shopping, transit and restaurants that have popped up over the years.

 

Visiting the home after dark, once all the lighting was installed, brought another pleasant surprise .The vintage-style pendant lights over the kitchen island create halos of light and starburst patterns projected onto the ceiling. 

Mom, an artist who marveled at starry skies, and Dad, an aerospace engineer who helped send rockets to the moon, would have loved it. 

I hope that the new owners will, too.

Below are some "before" photos, reflecting the transformation my childhood home has undergone.