PARDON OUR DUST
Dec. 23, 2001
Old charm anew
A plain 1950s ranch home gains
farmhouse style and a second story.
By KATHY PRICE-ROBINSON, Special to The Times
Matt Plaskoff describes his family’s Hidden Hills home as
a "turn-of-the-century farmhouse," but he should explain:
the vintage look came about at the turn of this century, not the
last.
Early in 2000, the home was a 1950’s one-story ranch with
a shake roof and 2,800-square-feet of mostly uninteresting interior
space.
Eleven months of labor and $700,000 later, the structure reemerged
as a two-story, 5,800-square-foot farmhouse graced by an old-fashioned
covered porch with a barn-style metal roof, second-story dormers,
and a charming cook’s kitchen with hand-distressed cabinets
and a marble-covered island.
Of course, the creation of a dream home so appealing that Plaskoff’s
wife, Karry, 35, wants to live in it "forever" did not
start a year ago March on the first day of construction.
The process actually began long before the couple bought the house
eight years ago. From the time of their marriage in 1986, the
couple owned and fixed up several homes until they figured out
it wasn’t the house that mattered, but the neighborhood.
Selling all their real estate and leasing a home for them and
their twin toddler daughters, the couple waited "like vultures"
to find a house is a desirable community.
In 1993, an acquaintance tipped them off to this foreclosed-upon
house in the exclusive, gated, 540-home, equestrian-oriented City
of Hidden Hills, near the Ventura/Los Angeles county line.
"There was no way on Earth I thought could get in here,"
said Matt, 40, owner of a construction and remodeling company
that had done jobs in the community. The house had never been
remodeled, and this suited the couple, who would want to remodel
it to their taste. "We were looking for something that hadn’t
been messed up," he explained.
The Plaskoffs poured everything they had into buying the house,
a barn and one acre of land for $600,000, and then put together
another $25,000 for a cosmetic remodel—paint, carpet, appliances,
shower doors, etc. "Just so it wasn’t gross," Karry
said. "It was nice, but old."
And then, they started dreaming up the "master plan."
In two years, they would build a pool. Two years, after that,
they would enlarge the family room, add a fireplace, and extend
the master bedroom. And in 2000, they would do a massive remodel.
Matt’s journal from 1996 shows the plan as it was detailed
while the couple were on a weekend getaway in Cambria. Circles
sketched on a floor plan indicate how the various spaces of the
house would be arranged—the current living room would be
sacrificed to a formal entryway and a grand stairway leading to
the second floor where a catwalk would overlook the family room.
The children’s bedrooms and laundry room would be on one
side of the second floor, with the master suite on the other.
The original footprint of the house would remain essentially the
same, except for the addition of a large rec room, which was intended
for long-term benefit. While the Plaskoffs’ daughters, now
numbering three, are still young—Stephanie and Jessica
are 11, Paige is 6—the day will surely come
when they want to spend time with boys, and the couple would prefer
that time is spent at the house. The rec room—with a diner
motif, a pool table, fooze ball game, and soda fountain and big-screen
entertainment center--would be, Plaskoff thought, "a place
boys would want to come to."
The cost for the remodel was estimated then at $300,000, but Plaskoff
Construction did so well during the 1990s (reaching an annual
volume of $9 million) that the eventual budget more than doubled.
On the couple’s 13th wedding anniversary, on March 14, 1999,
Matt presented his wife with the finished plans.
Before the transformation could begin, though, the plans had to
be approved by the City of Hidden Hills and the Hidden Hills Community
Association, a process that Matt describes as "intense"
for its focus on the ratio of how much house covers the land,
and the ratio between the square footage of the second story and
the first. If he were a homeowner, Matt said he "would have
been frustrated." But the powers-that-be felt the house agreed
with the neighborhood, which Matt characterizes as "a ranchy-family-cozy-Americana-horsey
thing."
As the project progressed, the couple were able to skip one step:
choosing a contractor. Not only would Tarzana-based Plaskoff Construction
build the house, but Matt himself would act as project manager.
There was "a little ego involved," Matt admitted, when
he chose to oversee the remodel rather than giving that job to
one of his company superintendents. He thought: "Hey, I’m
going to show these guys how to build a house." Plus, he
wanted the "sheer enjoyment" of being involved with
every detail of building his own house.
The family moved to a rented house during the nearly yearlong
construction process. As was determined years ago, the only walls
that stayed intact were in the remodeled master bedroom (which
would become the guestroom) and the remodeled family room.
While the couple designed the layout of the house, they relied
on interior designer Judith Wilson for help with the interiors--choosing
colors, cabinets, tile, knobs, faucets and the myriad other materials
that must be determined.
The kitchen includes a farm-style sink, celadon-colored granite
counters, a big Viking stove, Viking refrigerator, Viking warming
drawer, two Meile dishwashers, a wall of pantry shelves, and hand-made
cabinets. In a daring move, Karry Plaskoff asked that the cabinets
be stained three different shades—ivory along the wall, black
on the island and brown for the rest.
As a 20-year-old bride, Kerry said, she preferred "cutesy
sets," and considers it a "maturing" to want a
more eclectic grouping of colors. The designer gave her courage
to choose rich colors for most of the home’s walls. "It’s
paint," Karry realized. "You can repaint."
Upstairs, the rooms reflect the family’s desires. Jessica
and Stephanie, who has always shared a room until this year, requested
quite different styles. Jessica chose walls decorated with lavender
wainscoting, while sportsgirl Stephanie got a maple gym-type floor
and permission to shoot baskets with a Nerf ball. Little Paige
has a picket-fence bed and a room full of dolls.
The master suite "is where it all happens," Matt said,
and includes an exercise room, a balcony overlooking the back
yard, limestone counters, and a large Jacuzzi-type tub where Kerry
watches The Today Show each morning on the built-in television.
"My bedroom is my space," she said.
While the house turned out beautifully, Matt said the experience
was "a real eye-opener" for him. He was always aware
that homeowners are under pressure during a remodel, "But
I didn’t realize how much pressure," he said, "the
pressure of making decisions."
From the experience, he can offer three pieces of advice.
First, "Get help so you can do what you do best." By
taking his focus off running his business for the year, he figures
he lost $200,000 net gain from lost sales. On the upside, he developed
"such a large appreciation" for his project managers.
Second, work with a designer. "It’s hard for people
to understand," Matt said. "It’s expensive. It’s
not tangible. (But) it’s so much smoother with a designer."
In this case, the designer not only helped with decisions, but
supervised installation of tile and other materials to make sure
it was done right. "I wouldn’t know how to do that,"
Karry said.
And third, "Don’t rush your project. . . . Everybody’s
hell-bent on getting it done quickly," Matt said. But even
he and Karry said at one point: "Let’s take a few extra
weeks or month to do this."
Now that the remodel is complete—save for the circular driveway
and front landscaping that will come later—the couple have
virtually no regrets.
As Karry put it: "I don’t complain."
* * *
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