Fargo, North Dakota.
This week, Ritva begins our July of guest challenges with “Inspiration Found in the Kitchen.” She writes, “I am hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge with a theme of Inspiration found in the kitchen. That is often a place I find something to photograph in an hour of need.” You can read her entire challenge post here.
Her challenge allows me to share a story of our kitchen inspiration. The photo above features our newly remodeled kitchen after completion in 2015.
After we retired, we started enjoying our winters in a small house in Buckeye, Arizona. Early in the morning on February 1, 2014, I got a call from one of our condo neighbors. There had been a fire in our North Dakota condo unit resulting in severe damage. Our neighbor texted several cell phone photos of our unit. A fire of undetermined origin broke out in the ceiling of our unit destroying the ceiling above our kitchen and dining area. It burned through our upstairs neighbor’s floor and their refrigerator almost fell through the opening into our unit.
Most of the rest of the unit was severely smoke damaged, but the compromised ceiling and floor structure that separated us from the unit above was not repairable. The condo building insurance and our condo owners’ insurance companies authorized the complete gutting of the two units so the ceiling and floor joist structure above could be replaced and rebuilt to then-current building codes.
The above images were taken from the time we moved into the unit in 2012. The building was constructed in 1984 and we purchased the unit from the original unit owners. With us being in Arizona all winter, we decided to sell our single-family home. We thought it would be nice to not have yard care and snow removal issues while we were gone.
After the fire, it would take until November 2014 before we could move back into our unit, and in the meantime, we would need to work with a contractor to design and rebuild our unit. We stayed in Arizona until mid-April when it was finally time for the rebuild project to start, then we rented a small apartment during the reconstruction.
We made a few minor design changes elsewhere in the unit, but we concentrated on a new kitchen design. Our house in Arizona featured a kitchen with only a small “pony wall” separating the kitchen area from the family room. Our inspiration for the replacement kitchen featured an open concept and we thought it would be a great way to open up our Fargo kitchen, dining, and living room into a great room concept.
The kitchen and dining area increased in size due to the lack of a limiting wall separating them. There was no longer a need for a second small table and chair set to take up space in the kitchen area. Our new dining table expands to accommodate guests when needed.
Our great room area is open all the way to the master bedroom wall. We were happy that our stained glass window covers survived the fire with minimal repairs. The extreme wide-angle lens setting on my cellphone camera makes the space look larger than it really is.
In her post, Ritva wrote, “Now I have one request and hope you play along. Please share a photo of your favorite cup.” My Yeti cup is used daily and goes with me whenever I travel. Her request allowed me to also feature the wet bar we added as an upgrade to our condo after the fire. It’s in the living room and was carved out of some of the space in a store room. There used to be a hallway wall between the storeroom and the living room. We opted to lose the extra wall and add that space to the great room area. For a closer look at these images, you can find them in my Flickr album here.
Thanks to Ritva for hosting this week’s challenge. Next week, Mr. Philo of Philosophy Through Photography will be our guest host. For more information on joining the challenge each week, check here.
John Steiner
Flare Legend Adventures
A great kitchen now!
We like its flow. Thanks, Aletta!
Very nice
your kitchen looks great, we had similar color units in our previous home. And cup to go… I get it.
Thanks, Ritva!
That fire must have been an upsetting experience but look what you’ve got as a result – a fabulous living space! You talk about it being small and maybe it is by US standards but even allowing for the wide-angle lens it looks pretty big to me!
Our condo is big by condo standards, but compared to homes around here, it’s smaller than the typical single-family house. We were upset at first, but once we had a “clean slate” to design, we made lemonade out of the lemon. 🙂
And very nice lemonade too!
Great restoration job! Made perfect for you.
We were truly lucky to be able to do a redesign as part of the project.
Beautiful kitchen/great room concept. I’m sorry you had to go through that ordeal, but happy that your are enjoying the results.
We are indeed happy with the results. Thanks, Anne!
Well John, this one brought back some not-so-fond memories for us! While our kitchen suffered only smoke damage we needed to redesign and rebuild the laundry, garage, storage spaces and office. Despite the painful inconveniences and the loss of some few things we treasured, we are much happier with the redesigned spaces. I cannot imagine having to redesign the entire place! Like you we were out of the house during the major work from mid June through October. I share your pain from the fire and your pleasure with the new space! A perfect subject for the week!
You know what it’s like. We tried to make the design into our own space. In that respect, we were successful. It just took a while to get there.
What a horrible experience but something wonderful came from it! You must enjoy your “new” areas every day.
We do, indeed. Thanks, Janet!
Great kitchen renovatioons. Enjoy! 😀
Thanks, Cee!!
Ewwww! Nasty looking fire, GREAT transformation.
Thanks, John. We were lucky it wasn’t worse, especially for the other residents in the building. Our neighbor upstairs and I had the worst of it.
I love the newness the tidiness as well as the happier ending in the story. And cheers to your Yeti cup. That is the same cup I keep in the car for travel.
Your home is lovely.
I can’t imagine what you had gone through, John. The new kitchen is spacious and beautiful. Love it!
It turned out well, and it was worth the effort in the long run.
John, you and your wife have to be so happy in your new condo! You both did a great job designing everything.
It turned out well. After the initial shock, we just rolled with the punches that came along. We are both happy with the results.
Nothing like a fire to light a fire under the idea of remodeling a home. I love the open concept kitchens. But how terrifying to get the news of the fire in the first place then go through all the decisions and fun of the remodel. It looks very livable and spacious!
It cost quite a bit over the insurance settlement but it made sense to make the investment in improvements as we got partial reimbursement for almost every upgrade we made.
Fabulous remodel!! You made lemonade out of lemons
Thanks, Nora!
A happy ending to the disaster – and a spacious and clutterfree new kitchen. It is fun planning things anew, isn’t it – once you have accepted facts. Nicely photographed too.
Thanks, Ann-Christine! We lost only a very few items that we treasured, but all in all, it’s just “stuff”.
It also gave me the impetus to scan all of the photos and albums from earlier times so if we ever lose the physical photos (which did survive), they are now digitized with off-site storage as well.
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What an experience but the end result is great, John!
An experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It turned out far better than we expected in the long run, though.
Thanks, Sofia!
Horrifying experience. I can’t even imagine how it felt. But the new design is superb.
It was, but we had fun making the changes.
I know the feeling. When we bought our apartment, we renovated first. But to go through the fire is devastating, especially right after your retire. You guys have a lot of inner strength.
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