The former Sacramento residents got to know Lancaster County through Chris’ mother, who moved East nine years ago with the intention of settling in New England. House prices prompted her to rethink her plans and when she visited Lancaster County, the landscape reminded her of New England and she decided to put down roots here.

As a result of visiting her mother and liking the area, Chris approached her husband with the idea of moving here, as well. Brian was agreeable to the idea. As a mortgage banker, he was already seeing the gathering storm clouds and thought it would be a good career move to leave California. “I don’t know how some of those people slept at night,” he says of the subprime mortgages that had begun to drive the banking industry in California.

One day, Brian arrived home from work and was greeted by the words, “I bought a house … online.” Yes, Chris had bought a house in Lancaster, sight unseen. “It was in the same neighborhood where Chris’ mother lived,” Brian says, explaining that his mother-in-law assured her daughter that she was buying a well-maintained house that possessed lots of possibilities as far as remodeling was concerned.

Brian saw the house for the first time when they moved in and was impressed. “It was Halloween,” he laughs, alluding to the scary connotations move-in day might have provided. “It was immaculate,” he recalls. “The major problem was that it was outdated.” Brian, too, felt at home in Lancaster. “I’m originally from Minnesota,” he explains. “Lancaster County looks a lot like Minnesota – it’s like going home, but without the weather extremes.”

The first projects on the Mahrers’ to-do list were semi-finishing the basement and painting the house throughout. Then, they turned their attention to the outdated kitchen. This aspect of the list was filled with challenges. First, the maze-like layout of the back of the house needed to be eliminated in order to accommodate the couple’s growing family – Brian and Chris are foster parents and “full house” definitely describes their lifestyle. (Brian’s estimation of “it’s a busy house” might qualify as an understatement.)

An inter-related issue was traffic flow, which was a problem due in part to the fact that a wall separated the kitchen/breakfast room from the family room. The fact that both areas were relatively small to begin with only

The third problem involved the laundry – it was in the kitchen! Problem number four involved the peninsula-shaped counter – when people sat at the counter it rendered the back door unusable, which was an issue if Brian was using the grill in the backyard. The peninsula also made the kitchen look even smaller than it was.

Appliances constituted the fifth problem, as they did not meet the needs of Brian’s culinary skills. The sixth item that needed to be remedied was lighting – one lone fixture illuminated the space. The seventh complaint was a lack of storage space, as the laundry and refrigerator took up three-quarters of a wall.

Finally, aesthetics was an issue – the kitchen looked every bit its age.

Where to Begin

As the Mahrers were new to the area, they were not familiar with remodeling contractors. One day, Chris was telling some co-workers about the proposed project that was on hold when one of her co-workers, Angie Martin, came to their rescue – her husband, Travis, was the owner of Martin Kitchen and Tile. “She just happened to have a business card with her,” Brian recalls.

The couple called Travis and instantly liked that he was willing to work with their vision of what they wanted in a kitchen – a light and airy space that reflected Chris’ eclectic decorating style and Brian’s love of cooking. They liked Travis’ plan to tear down the problematic wall, do away with the peninsula and move the laundry in an effort to create an open floor plan. “Most kitchen remodels involve removing a wall,” Travis reports.

Credits:
Contractor: Travis Martin/Martin Kitchen & Tile, Lancaster
Cabinetry Supplier: Lezzer Lumber, Rohrerstown
Appliances: LHB Appliances (L.H. Brubaker), Lancaster
Range Backsplash & Hood Duct Cover: H.M. Horst, Inc., New Holland
Counter Surfaces: Natural Stoneworks, Lancaster
Concrete Counter: PACO Originals, Carlisle
Backsplash Supplier: PA Stone, Lancaster
Electrical Contractor: Keener Electric, Lancaster
Plumbing Contractor: Albert Herr Plumbing, Strasburg
Flooring Supplier: Sandy Ponds Hardwoods, Quarryville
Floor Finishing: Galebach’s Floor Finishing, Landisville
Drywall: Horst & Son Drywall, Ephrata

To read more see the September issue of Lancaster County magazine.