Showcase Living Room
Showcase Living Room
The seven ages of man, as Shakespeare saw it anyway, don’t include one as “a parent and steward of a house in need of a new layout.” And yet who has not noticed that the time to raise children often coincides with the time to raze walls? Consider what Erik and Michelle Dagenhart went through when, as busy young parents of then 6-year-old twins, they took on a house wracked by hard knocks and neglect—and turned it into a showplace by doing much of the work themselves.
Erik credits his dad, himself the son of a carpenter, with imprinting the drive to DIY. “He always said, ‘Why pay someone to do something you can do yourself?’ ”
Michelle, similarly hardwired, was already teaching herself remodeling skills in her 20s. Eschewing a conventional courtship, the two daydreamed about homeownership and ultimately worked together on Michelle’s starter house.
Shown: Payoffs include an inviting living room, anchored by a working fireplace with its original mantel and a new marble surround.