REASON TO RENOVATE I DÉCOR FEATURE
After several years of personalizing a house, why move when you can renovate?
Couple considered moving, but chose home instead.
WHEN BOB STATHAM and Theresa Risi first stepped into the sprawling two-storey with the stunning backyard and the pale pink stucco, it was just another house.
Six years and a pair of major renovations later, the couple can’t imagine calling any other place home. That was underlined at the end of 2012 when they almost moved. Almost. Instead they decided to stay and make changes. “I think it’s just the feel,” says Statham from a charcoalcoloured armchair in the couple’s open-concept >>
living room. “You walk in and it’s very stress-free and very comfortable, and you can just chill.”
As much as Statham and Risi have come to adore their not-so-humble abode, it was anything but love at first sight.
“The interior of the house was … less than desirable,” says Risi, reflecting on the first time she laid eyes on the place. “It was very dated.”
Dated as it appeared, the house was, in fact, less than 10 years old. One of the very first to sprout up in the Wyldwoods subdivision in south Kitchener, it served as a model home before it sold in the late 1990s.
But despite its cosmetic shortcomings, the place had potential. With more than 3,000 square feet of living space, the house featured four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 18-foot ceilings on the main floor and a finished basement.
The property’s most redeeming quality, however – the quality that allowed the couple to look past the outdated wallpaper and the dreary white tile flooring – was the property itself.
Tucked away in the corner of a quiet, tree-lined court, the pie-shaped lot was sheltered on either side by healthy shrubs and rows of mature trees. The paradisiacal backyard, overlooked by an expansive balcony patio, extended beyond the great in-ground pool and intricate concrete deck into a flourishing forest of untouched green space.
“It was primarily me that fell in love with the backyard,” Risi says. “As an event planner and a very social person, the whole hospitality opportunity was a big draw.”
Even though the pool was still in hiberna-
tion mode and the perennial plantation had yet to bloom, the couple had seen enough to put in an offer. Instead of moving in on their April possession date, however, they handed the keys over to a contractor. “We had to make the decision at the time we purchased the house how much of the renovations we were going to do then, and how much money we wanted to commit to it,” Risi says. As it turned out, they committed quite a lot. Room by room, the couple converted the house from on outmoded model home to a chic and modern “cottage in the city.” The walls, which were covered in wallpaper, were painted in warm neutral tones. The stark white tile floor was torn out and replaced with maple hardwood. All three bathrooms were gutted and given facelifts.
The fireplace in the living room was torn out and replaced by a larger one with a textured stone mantel and a matching hearth. The lighting and the fixtures were all swapped out. A bedroom was added in the basement for when Statham’s daughter Amy, who has just graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax, comes home.
And that pale pink stucco smothering the exterior of the house was replaced by dark grey siding to complement the earthy tones of the brick below it.
In all, the renovations took two months and cost about $150,000. By the beginning of June 2007, just in time to enjoy the pool, Statham and Risi moved in with their then nine-year-old son, Matteo.
“The vast majority of the renos were done — except for the kitchen — before we ever moved in,” Statham says. “It was almost like moving into a brand new house.”
Now all they had to do was make it feel like home.
When Statham and Risi first met at a spin cycle class at the local YMCA eight years ago, they quickly discovered they had a lot in common.
Both were fitness enthusiasts. Both enjoyed travelling. Both owned their own businesses – Statham, a Cambridge-based wholesale distributor of propane equipment and water sports equipment and Risi, an event-management company.
So when it came time to decorate their first place together, it’s no surprise they
were on the same page.
“I’ve always liked warm and inviting, so that’s kind of the focus of the décor,” Risi says. “I like people to come in and just breathe and relax and feel comfortable.”
The “less is more” approach also suits Statham, who prefers a “fairly simple, but warm, environment.”
Sparsely furnished and simply decorated, the home is both. The shelves and surfaces throughout the house are essentially clutterfree, and the ornaments that are displayed tend to hold sentimental significance.
From the hard covers in the living room’s built-in bookshelves to the countless photos of the couple and their family, the personal touches abound.
But the beautiful décor does come with an underlying note of sadness — and remembrance.
Everywhere you look there are angels — large and small, bronze and silver, inside
and out. While they manage to complement the home’s personalized décor, accoutrement is not their primary purpose. On Dec. 3, 1997, Risi’s 16-year-old daughter became suddenly ill. Without any warning, she died the next day. “Meningitis struck the region and there were a couple of girls that passed away,” Risi recalls. “Michelle was the first one.
“You’ll see angels all around the house, and it’s just that we’re really comforted by them. They’re really in remembrance of her.” And as Michelle’s spirit lives on through the winged mementos spread throughout the house, Risi continues to honour her daughter by exemplifying the joy and kindness she most remembers about her. In addition to hosting the annual family Christmas dinners, Risi is often the first to offer up her home for garden parties and social functions for Matteo’s hockey team. “For me, home means family and friends and get-togethers,” Risi says. “That’s when I’m happiest — when the house is full of love and laughter.”
Toward the end of 2012, nearly six years after they moved into the home, Statham and Risi found themselves at a crossroads. With a son close to driving age and a growing fleet of vehicles, the family was running out of garage space. And despite all the changes they’d made to the house before moving in, they were still dissatisfied with the kitchen. It was a dilemma many homeowners struggle with at one time or another: stay and renovate, or move and start over?
Before long, they were leaning heavily toward the latter. “We were on a full-out house hunt,” Risi says. “We were looking around and comparing. We ended up finding something that we both liked in Blair.” The property that caught their attention sat on an acre of land in the new Chateaux of Blair Park subdivision on the outskirts of Cambridge. In addition to having more space than
the house in Wyldwoods, it featured a massive five-car garage, a spacious openconcept kitchen and plenty of room for a new pool.
But the more the couple thought about moving, the less appealing it seemed.
“By the time you take real estate fees and land transfer costs and put a pool in the back and a driveway and landscape it, it doesn’t make sense,” Statham says. “It’s easier to justify the cost of putting money into a place like this than buying a new house.”
There were also other, more sentimental considerations.
For one, the family loved their south Kitchener community. They got along with their neighbours and had grown fond of the area’s network of walking trails, which they frequented with Maggie May, the goldendoodle who had recently joined the family.
So instead of packing up and sticking a For Sale sign on their front lawn, they
For me, home means family and friends and get-togethers That’s when I’m happiest — when the house is full of love and laughter. Theresa Risi
began looking at kitchen designs and consulting contractors.
Statham says he trusted Risi to spearhead the design.
“Theresa’s got the vision as far as knowing what will look good, and what won’t.”
And while the couple generally agreed on the plethora of decisions that had to be made, they had a contingency plan for when compromise was required — just in case.
“I always get my way,” Risi says, laughing. “Let’s be honest. Happy wife, happy life.”
Much like the original round of remodelling, the kitchen renovations were an extensive undertaking. So much so that the family decided to move across town to the Bauer Lofts in uptown Waterloo for the duration of the two-month project.
“We were really lucky to find a short-term furnished rental,” Statham says. “It worked out perfect.”
As Statham, Risi and Matteo familiarized themselves with condo living and a new selection of local restaurants, a crew got to work on building the kitchen of the family’s dreams.
They started by tearing out the dividing wall between the kitchen and the living room, replacing it with a single stone support beam which matched the fireplace. Then they tore out the original ceiling, replaced the cupboards and counters and updated the lighting.
They also installed an immense island
with a striking one-piece granite countertop, mounted an elegant wine rack into the wall and replaced the sliding windows with a single pane of glass resembling an animate piece of art which changes with the season. While Risi was actively involved throughout the process, she says the finished product exceeded her expectations.
“I’m really happy with the end result,” says Theresa. “I love the kitchen, I love the living room, I love the feel.
“Brand new isn’t always better.” Stepping into the spacious front foyer of Statham and Risi’s re-imagined home, the first thing you’ll notice is the attractive greeting room to the right. Furnished with an antique wooden desk, a round glass coffee table and a pair of taupe cushioned armchairs, it’s the kind of room one could spend several contented hours sipping coffee and enjoying a good book.
The walls, which are painted the colour of wet sand and trimmed with bold white moulding, are covered with funky artwork and vivid maps of the world.
In one corner stands a shoulder-high mantle topped with about a dozen framed photographs. There, amid the mosaic of tanned, smiling faces, is a small wooden plaque adorned with six simple words: Home is where your story begins.
For Statham, Risi and Matteo, their story in the home they almost never bought has been an interesting one. It has included a lot of laughs, some daunting decisions and a lifetime of memories.
And six years in the making, it is a story the family plans to continue writing for the foreseeable future.
But as Risi and Statham near retirement – “probably about five more years,” he says – and Matteo approaches his high school graduation, the couple has begun planning for the inevitable day they will move on to the next chapter.
And according to Risi, it doesn’t necessarily involve sticking around Waterloo Region – full-time, at least.
“We’d like to eventually have a place in Florida for winters and a summer place here,” she says. “That would be ideal.”
In the meantime, however, the couple are more than happy to continue hosting parties, cooking in their brand new kitchen and, of course, enjoying the beautiful backyard that hooked them at first sight.
“Every time we travel, and we’ve travelled to some really beautiful places, we walk back in here and I say, ‘There’s no place like home.’ ”
She looks around the living room, her eyes moving from the smiling Statham to the dozing blond dog at her feet to the bronze angel statuette in the corner.
“Truly, to me, there is no place like this home.”