Such descriptors wouldn't top most home buyers' lists, but these two features were exactly what Gordon Creed, construction manager, and Cynthia Gardiner-Creed, interior design consultant, were looking for in late 2006. And they found it in a 1970-built bi-level, although the Esquimalt house's lower level was partially finished with outdated panelling.

 

Real estate agent Jane Johnston, left, construction manager Gordon Creed and interior design consultant Cynthia Gardiner-Creed worked to buy, renovate and resell a bi-level ranch-style house in Esquimalt.

Jane Johnston, the couple's real estate agent, confirms it: "We were looking for the ugliest house we could find."

Looks didn't matter because the house was not intended as a home, at least not for the Creed family. Instead, it was a construction site, a classroom and an investment. They bought the house with the intention to live in it while their near-grown children made the transition out of the nest, and then flip it.

The most sought-after feature in the two-level house was its spacious, largely undeveloped basement.

"You can't count that as part of the house's dimensions when it's undeveloped, but as soon you finish it, you virtually double your square-footage," Gardiner-Creed says.

And doubling square-footage can translate into a more salable and profitable venture.

Johnston says that when they found the house, it had been on the market for 56 days.

They paid $409,000 for the house, Gardiner-Creed says, and invested about $150,000 in the renovation. She notes that the price tag was "too much in materials to do an average flip, but we intended on residing there while our boys were at college."

When they put the house on the market in November 2007, Johnston says it attracted four offers and sold in five days for $34,000 above the asking price of $599,000.

This time around, the house was not the ugliest on the market. Far from it.

Originally, the house's exterior was white stucco with a porch entry floored in blue-painted concrete with a single gable over the living room and an attached, open carport. Its strong horizontal lines are consistent with the 1970s-era fusion of prairie architecture and raised-rancher style.

The interior flooring was a mix of carpeting and linoleum. The walls were white and the baseboards were plain. The kitchen was walled in bone-coloured European cabinets with oak pulls that were in excellent condition, however, like the rest of the house, the cabinets were dated.

Like many rancher styles of the era, the kitchen was walled off from the living room and dining room in a classic L-shaped configuration that cut up and visually shrunk the space, even in this house that covered more than 2,000 square feet at the time of purchase.

Ugly by modern design standards, however, the inspection revealed that the house's shortcomings were only skin-deep. "It had obvious flaws," Johnston notes, "but they were design flaws."

The house may have been imperfect in appearance, but it was perfect as a "renovation laboratory" for Gardiner-Creed who gives seminars on staging. She toured her students through the house while it was undergoing its makeover.

"It was a taste of the reality of renovating," says Gardiner-Creed as she works her way around a stack of tools in the lower-level where Creed is still putting finishing touches on the new two-bedroom suite.

The renovation started at the exterior. Looking to blend arts-and-crafts influence in the house, Creed installed gables over the carport and front entry, then added cedar shingles and a string of dentil block in the largest gable. The stucco was then painted in an earthier tone, and the single front door converted into a double-door entry.

The addition of the gable over the front door eliminated a large transom window. To balance the accompanying loss of light, Gardiner-Creed had the upper-hallway closet removed to create a small balcony over the entry, so that light could flow through from the north side of the home.

The two walls surrounding the kitchen were removed, and a load-bearing beam installed.

The kitchen's atmosphere is upscale with espresso-stained shaker cabinets, polished nickel handles, and a deep-set counter that gives the kitchen a chunky, sturdy look. The backsplash is tiled in slate and glass block, and a pantry was added next to the stove. An island and raised bar counter with extra cabinet storage underneath divides the kitchen from the living and dining spaces. The roughened slate look continues in a trim around the raised bar counter.

Crown mouldings were installed all around, and the rooms repainted in Ralph Lauren earth-tone colours anchored with dark chocolate accents. A floor-to-ceiling brick chimney on the wood-burning fireplace was coated in a clay tone and trimmed with slate tile. The black raised hearth was removed and replaced with a floor-level slate hearth.

The main floor bathrooms were remodelled with slate tiles, new plumbing and floating-glass sinks over espresso vanities. Aluminum windows were replaced with craftsman-style low-e windows.

Renovating a home to resell rather than occupy means creating a house with the widest range of uses. The rooms for the suite could easily serve as a family room, playroom, den, guest room, study or hobby space. With such uses in mind, Gardiner-Creed designed one large room as a flex space with soundproof double-walls as a possible media room, or guest room that offers separation of space and sound from the family.

Johnston credits Gardiner-Creed's design eye for making the house a fast sale. "She made it both beautiful and functional," Johnston says. "Her design appealed to everyone who came into the home."

jhatherly@tc.canwest.com

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008