Lexington, KY - Phil and Jennifer Osborne had lived in their Chinoe Road home for a number of years before pulling the trigger on the interior changes that would ultimately open up the entire ground level into the warm guest-friendly space that now defines the house.
The home was originally outfitted with a traditionally small kitchen and larger, detached, formal dining room. While the family loved the home and the location, being a couple that entertains often, the small closed-in kitchen had started to put a damper on their style.
"Whenever you entertain, it doesn't matter if you have just family or a huge crowd -
everyone ends up in the kitchen," Jennifer said. "My husband is a big guy, my son is a big guy, my nephew is 6'7" ... we needed some space."
With a kitchen that became crowded with more than one person in it, the family had gone so far as to start looking into moving into a new home with a larger kitchen and entertaining area, "but we couldn't find anything that had as much charm," Jennifer said.
A former schoolteacher who now serves as director of operations for Preston-Osborne, the marketing and research firm for which Phil is the chief executive officer, Jennifer has long nurtured an interior design hobby that sometimes nears doubling as a full-time job.
"I love to buy houses, fix them up and sell them," she admitted, adding that her love for real estate was something she acquired from her father, and that the Chinoe home was probably the 10th such home in that line. This particular home was different, however, for reasons that made it more difficult to give up: it was the first house that the couple, now married seven years, had purchased together. Prior to purchasing the home, Phil had been living in Danville and commuting to Lexington for work for years; Jennifer had always lived "outside the circle," be it in Firebrook, Andover, Stonewall or Old Ridge. Having a house with the charm of Chevy Chase was important, but secondary to having enough space for their large, blended family, which consists of four children (Anne Ward, 19; Emily, 22; Caelin, 27; and Matthew, 18).
At 4,000-plus square foot, the home certainly had space for everyone, and the close proximity to Phil and Jennifer's office was icing on the cake. It was when they first brought their children to see the house, however, that one of their daughters all but sealed the deal for them.
"She looked at Phil and she said, 'This is the house I want to bring my future husband home to,'" Jennifer recalled. "And he looked at me and he said, 'Well, now I'm gonna have to buy the darn thing.'"
So, after living for four years with a kitchen they had outgrown before they even moved in, a solution came to Jennifer in a dream one night.
"I woke up and said, 'We're knocking that wall out,'" she recalled with a laugh (interestingly, the design for their back patio, which includes a fireplace and outdoor kitchen, also came to her in a dream).
She placed a call to Debra Hupman of Creative Kitchen and Bath, who helped map out a design and line up some contractors from Padgett Construction to make Jennifer's (literal) vision a reality. After seeing some of Hupman's work, Jennifer trusted her to help create a cohesive design that flowed with the rest of the home.
"I wanted an updated kitchen, but I didn't want it to look like I'd just redone it," she explained.
One step to achieving this goal included detailing all the new cabinets to mimic the originals; the original floors were preserved and reworked to appear seamless as well. The final floor plan included not only knocking out the walls between the kitchen and breakfast nook, but also knocking out the walls of a downstairs bedroom that was just beyond the nook to create one large, continuous space on the ground level. Columns were installed for structural support where those walls once stood, and between two of those columns extends an oversized granite island that includes a stovetop, sliding drawer microwave and plenty of extra storage and work space.
The resulting space is one that invites fellowship and food prep to peacefully coexist - the new space boasts continuity from refrigerator to stovetop to dinner table, with plenty of counter space and seating (including a handful of barstools and two plush, oversized chairs that face the wall-mounted flat screen).
Phil and Jennifer couldn't be happier with the new layout ... and as for their daughter Emily, the one who helped seal the deal on the home in the first place? Phil insists he's not trying to rush her into anything, but if the right offer comes in, they may be looking for a new dream house.