For the 2021 Parade of Homes Orlando, Hardwick General Contracting entered a remodeling project in Winter Park that we call Winter Park Dream Home Transformation. This home had all ingredients of a perfect Winter Park family home. It just needed some pizazz! Our team was selected to transform this home into a luxury retreat. The team worked closely with Ted Maines Interiors and homeowners to make a home that truly works for the busy Freeman family. Greg Hardwick notes, “The Freemans are incredible owners, we had a lot of fun working with them, and Ted Maines Interiors really helped us put everything together.” Let’s look at what went into this dramatic transformation.

Exterior Facelift

We started by redoing the entryway and give the front of the home just a little facelift. We didn’t do any structural modifications other than what we needed to do to turn several doors into windows and windows into doors. We designed and installed a new railing up on the second floor, re-painted the entire house, and replaced the roof with a new color. We restructured the front elevation and made it a little more cleaner by removing the stucco bands and retrofitting black windows and doors from Andersen Windows & Doors, except for the front door, which was a custom piece and the 18-ft wide folding door on the rear lanai which came from Origin Windows and Doors..

Interior Basics

Inside, with the exception of two bathrooms, we basically stripped every room down to the studs on the first floor to accomplish two things. One, to completely revamp the lighting plan, and two, to get to a level five finish on the drywall. Even in the places where we applied textured wallpaper, we got the walls completely smooth in order to do that perfectly. The lighting plan was completed reworked and updated with modernized LED fixtures and cutting-edge switches and plugs. We were also able to re-work some of the non-structural framing to enlarge a few key spaces in the entertainment area.

Welcoming Entryway

To the right of the entryway is the home office, and we moved a wall down a little bit to give it more space. The office had Colonial French doors that we removed and reframed so we could have new pocket doors that gave you that little bit more color and still the transparency into the study. The foyer is very inviting, and to the left, where there used to be the dining room. We made this more of a gathering room or parlor. The bar is right there behind the parlor, and the powder bath is to the left. This became a more inviting space; we created a nice little entertainment space here. Prior to our remodel, there have been several remodels and flooring replaced over the years, so the kitchen was at one level, the living room and foyer were at another, and the master bedroom was at another. We redid all the flooring with engineered wood to get that as level as possible.

The new dining room used to be a formal living room, and we converted it by stripping everything off the walls, removing the traditional columns that narrowed the opening. We wanted to make the room symmetrical in relation to the foyer. This dining room has some pretty intricate millwork. We went down to the framing, removing a false wall to take it back to the original walls and align the dining room window with the foyer.

Dream Kitchen

The kitchen we created is certainly unique, something that you’re not seeing in today’s production homes. The quartz countertops are unbelievable; the patterns that you’re getting today are completely different than they were even five years ago. We were able to match the navy, white and gold colors, with this veining that you see and pattern matching. We really love working with the quartz countertop material. Even though in this kitchen, we took every inch of flooring up, we moved sinks and walls and windows and doors, we were able to salvage the appliances. They already had good Sub Zero and Wolf appliances, and we were able to work with the kitchen designer to have those spaces to put them into the layout for the new design. The cabinets have drawers behind the doors, and everything is organized into four primary bays. The clean look accentuates the polished brass and all the gold and blue. You wouldn’t believe how intricate putting countertops is nowadays: we were careful working with Cambria to produce the patterns and the veins to match so that they look like they’re all flowing together from the countertop to the backsplash. We did move one of the windows to create this symmetry around the hood. It’s a beautiful color on the island, with contrasting whites and blue and a massive island.

Breakfast Room Solution

The homeowner wanted a place to keep breakfast supplies out of sight but still easy to reach, so we took a closet and converted it into a breakfast area. The purpose of this room is to take all the stuff off the island. Her boys get ready for school and come home from school, and they can put their stuff in the breakfast room. It was created out of a much smaller closet, and we moved a few walls around. Her boys are young soccer players, and they’re always getting up in the morning and messing up the space with their breakfast stuff, so she wanted everything off the island and into this new breakfast station.

Entertainment Room

To create the kitchen and entertainment room space, we completely gutted the whole area- including the ceilings and walls. We increased the ceiling insulation to help the family maintain temperature and energy efficiency in the home. It was a huge upgrade functionally and also aesthetically to get it looking like this. Between the entertainment room and the back patio is an 18-foot folding door that replaced a bank of windows. This huge folding door connects the inside entertainment area with the outside entertainment area. It folds all the way back to give you roughly 18 feet of clearance, so on a nice day, you can open this whole thing, and it creates an open indoor/outdoor space.

Outside Living Spaces

We reworked the outdoor living areas to make them more conducive to entertaining. Before the renovation, there used to be a little grill, but they couldn’t really use it because the doors made the space unusable. They didn’t really have a good seating area that was undercover. We replace doors with window assemblies, creating an outdoor covered shaded space. We also moved the grill and added outdoor cabinetry, a sink, and outdoor refrigeration.

For the guest house, we replaced all the windows to match the main house, repaired the stucco, and then completely repainted it to match the rest of the house. We’ve done all of this work without adding to the house, just completely refitting it to their lifestyle in a neighborhood that they love, and now the family has a house they want to live in forever. We’re excited to share this renovation project as a part of the Orlando Parade of Homes; it’s indeed been a pleasure to create this dream home for the Freeman family.