The Elevator Project

Our elevator project is finally done! We had no idea when we started the process that it would be such a long project. I actually laughed out loud when our contractor told us it would take six months. Six months seemed ridiculous for a 7' x 9' shaft to be added onto the house. But boy was I wrong. We broke ground in September 2024, and it was officially completed October 2025 - over a year later!

It was quite an intricate project, and we unfortunately had a multitude of delays. Some due to my indecisiveness such as my inability to pick the flooring for the elevator just as we were rushing to get to Colombia. Some due to issues with subs like the guy who took forever to show up to complete the retaining wall and then did it incorrectly, resulting in it needing to be torn down and redone by someone else. Some due to changes in the original plan like changing what was supposed to be enclosed dead space in Owen's room to a very narrow storage closet which hadn't been properly framed for a door. 

The elevator was added onto the northeast corner of the house giving us access to it from the kitchen pantry, Owen's upstairs bedroom, and the future basement bar. The main floor office was also impacted. Thankfully our contractor was amazing and did his best to minimize the effect of living in a construction zone on our daily lives.

In order to keep our future basement bedroom, we had to relocate the basement window to the front of the house.  The original plans had it as a traditional egress-type window, but instead, we were able to keep the window space open to the side yard by modifying our existing retaining wall.

It was exciting and a bit terrifying watching the project take shape. The construction workers were sure up high as the tower went up.

The exterior turned out perfectly. Everything from the roof line to the siding blends right in.

On the interior, our pantry went from being a walk-in closet... 

To a walkthrough hallway. We lost our large pantry freezer and extra deep storage shelves which was a bit of a shock at first. But we gained a small prep counter, built-in coffee maker (our big splurge!), and freezer drawers.

Up in Owen's bedroom, more changes were happening. Sadly, Owen's vinyl dinosaur mural didn't make it through the renovation. 

Due to now having a doorway to the elevator and a new closet barn door taking up the majority of the wall where his bed once went, we had to reconfigure his furniture placement. He ended up getting rid of his rarely used desk and a set of drawers, opting to make better utilization of his closet. He found a gorgeous painting at the Usaquen Market in Bogota that we hung above his bed as well as some shelving for all his trinkets. He's loving his new modernized, grown-up digs and has been surprising accommodating with us entering and exiting his room multiple times a day, even as early as 5:00 am. We have offered up the option to switch bedrooms, but he hasn't wanted to move and seems quite happy to stay put. 

The office, well, that's another story. When we had started the elevator project, we didn't realize that the office would be impacted. A portion of the office wall had to be moved 6" into the space and a built-in niche area was added with the addition. We had planned to just add storage to the niche, but after the work began, we started thinking that now might be the time to change the paint color, get new carpet, widen the doorway, the list went on and on. So the office is still unfinished as we continue to tweak and modify our plans.

The elevator has made life so much easier. No more carrying Aria and Sam plus their mobility equipment up and down the stairs. My knees and back are much happier just rolling them from one level to the next. It's been a huge blessing. Now onto the next project in a long list of things to do to make our home accessible.