One couple's journey through buying, selling, downsizing, renovating, and moving from the suburbs to the city during the pandemic.
Mindy and Bill Hauptman had planned to wait to downsize and move to Philadelphia until after they both retired. But the time seemed right.
“The ability to create the space for what our needs are is what was appealing to us,” Mindy said. “I feel we can have the best of both worlds” — city life and space. The views were major selling points for the couple, so one challenge was how to “keep those views and have different living spaces without completely closing off everything,” said Catharine Lowery, the Hauptmans’ architect and interior designer and senior project manager at Philadelphia-based Toner Architects.
Their floor plan and vision for their space evolved, and they and their team worked around the curves thrown at them. Pipes from the bathroom of the unit above meant they couldn’t open up part of the foyer’s ceiling as high as they had planned. So they created a drop ceiling that adds dimension to the space. Shelves with photos of the couple’s children calmed the sting of not being able to remove a piece of wall.
Construction took six months — two more than expected, said Adam Sherman, owner of the design-build firm Cottage Industries, based in Devon.The Hauptmans expanded their bathroom, enlarged the foyer, and created a larger kitchen. They added a closet in their bedroom, converted one bedroom into an office, and gained a laundry room. And they created dedicated spaces for dining, reading, and piano playing.
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