CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS IN A RENOVATION

Professional remodelers help families renovate their homes to address functionality, style and cultural interests.

Des Plaines, Illinois, July 8, 2008—Home means different things to different people, and how you approach your living space is as unique as the family you grew up with. Today, home remodeling goes much further than expanding spaces or updating kitchens and baths for functionality and style. Renovation projects can help customize a home to better fit a family’s individual culture while helping to improve its resale value, too, according to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI).

Loraine Masterton, director of marketing and community relations for Parrish Construction in Boulder, Colo., says there are many ways homes can be remodeled to accommodate the special cultural, physical and aesthetic needs of a family. “We do very personal and customized projects that rely on us listening deeply to our clients needs,” Masterton said.  In fact, Parrish Construction recently won a 2008 CotY Award for a residential design project it completed for a Japanese-American family. The goal was to blend Japanese culture with the family’s need for more space.

Despite having a large, three-bedroom home, the family felt cramped with three generations living under the same roof. The family had recently invited their grandmother, MammaSan, to move to the United States from Japan, and she missed the traditional amenities of Japanese homes as well as her privacy,

The head of the household wanted to make his mother’s immigration to America as comfortable for her as possible, both physically and culturally. This meant renovating the family home to accommodate Japanese building and living traditions while incorporating aging-in-place design details that would enable his elderly mother to live comfortably.  In addition, the family ran a music school in their basement and needed a way to separate studio foot traffic from their personal living spaces. To address all these concerns, Parrish Construction designed a plan that expanded the home, improved traffic flow and used Japanese design as a key inspiration.

First, Parrish added a 628-foot addition that fulfilled two requirements, both cultural: no doorways could face north (to enter from the North is bad luck in Japanese tradition), and rooms needed to let in as much natural light as possible.

In a Japanese house, the entryway, or gen ken, carries great significance and must physically and symbolically separate the street from the private living spaces. The entryway was reworked to improve traffic flow, and a new entrance relocated the door to the studio so that students could enter the home without encroaching on the living room or kitchen. The

Parrish Custom Cabinet Shoppe designed classic Nipponese cherry wood cabinet along with a custom coat rack and shoe bench. There, the family trades outdoor shoes for slippers when they come home.

MammaSan had the smallest of the three bedrooms in the original house—her bed virtually touched the closet door and the room had only one window. In her new master suite, four windows let in warm sunshine and provide a view of the Japanese-inspired xeriscape outside.  The new bedroom now provides plenty of space for traditional furnishings and an ancestor shrine.

Parrish Construction also addressed MammaSan’s bath. Ninety percent of the commodes in urban Japan include warmed seats and a variety of bidet hygiene options.  “In Japan, they feel that dignity is such an important part of every person’s rights and the elderly and the infirm should be given the opportunity to care for themselves,” Masterton said. Other creature comforts include heated floors, a shower with a built-in bench and adjustable plumbing fixtures. The doorways are also wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, should one be needed one day.

The result of the renovation project was a home that delighted the homeowner and his family. There are many professional home remodelers in the country who can address unique cultural needs; it’s just a matter of finding the right one.

“You want to look for a long standing, established builder—the more experience the better,” Masterson recommended. “Someone who’s been around will have clever design twists to old problems.” Parrish Construction, for example, has been in business for 40 years. The company also has a custom cabinet shop that enables its master carpenters to build just about anything from scratch.

A professional remodeler can help homeowners who want to incorporate unique cultural features into their home remodel. Log on to www.RemodelToday.com to find a remodeler in your area. If you’d like a copy of NARI’s “How to Select a Remodeling Professional,” you can call the NARI National hotline at 800-611-NARI and request a free copy, or visit http://www.RemodelToday.com and click on homeowner link for more information.