Two years ago, Amelia Costanzo and Becky Harrison were looking for a home to buy. They had always lived in rentals and wanted something to call their own and make colorful and fun. Amelia had mostly lived in the Short North area and Becky lived in the Old North and OSU Campus areas. They both grew up in other areas of the state – Becky in Youngstown and Amelia in Cleveland. Amelia went to college at Ohio University and made frequent stops in Columbus. Eventually she decided to stop here permanently. “Columbus always felt right to me,” she shared. “It feels like a big city, but you always see someone you know.” Becky likes the diversity of Columbus and the strong support the GLBT community has here. It’s also a great place for shopping locally.
They found their 1300 square foot, 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo in Italian Village. It was a very dirty foreclosure that they got for a great price. Just cleaning the place took about a week. Then they worked with contractor Chris Anderson to remove a built in closet in the dining room and reconfigure their bathroom and laundry area. They also added a brick patio in the backyard, replaced doors, added a fence, landscaped their front yard, replaced the roof and updated the plumbing and electrical. So they have been busy! Keep reading to see some of the before photos and their beautiful place now.
Italian Village was a great place for them to find their home. They love that everyone is remodeling their homes and contributing to the up and coming aspect of the neighborhood. Being able to live an urban lifestyle and walk to everything they want to do after work-hours is also a major benefit to their location. Amelia is able to take the bus to work sometimes and Becky has a quick commute to her work. Some of their favorite places to go include Marcellas, Surly Girl for brunch, Carabar, the North Market and Haiku.
Dining Before
Dining After
Their cozy colorful style includes several pieces of furniture that Amelia picked up for cheap and made look beautiful with paint. She’s also repurposed things to serve in other areas of the house such as the outdoor tables that are now bedside tables. Her mother has also helped out with reupholstering the dining chairs, making the purple ottoman in the living room and actually making the fabric for the black pillows in the living room.
They recently completed the bathroom and laundry room renovation. The narrow awkward layout of the bathroom was changed to enlarge the space. The wall next to the staircase was partially removed, opening the space and adding light. Adding the laundry upstairs was a great decision. The month long renovation meant spending lots of time at the laundromat, a task they are happy is over. They also redid all of the tile in the bathroom. The entire bath/laundry renovation ran about 11k.
Bath Before/After
The sitting area that had previously mostly been a waste of space is now a sunny spot in the house to do other tasks like ironing. In the hallway, they added a pull-down staircase to easily access the attic. It’s an easy to install kit that you can get at a hardware store to make access to your attic a cinch.
They love having a large beautiful space to host dinner and brunch parties for friends. Becky is right at home in the kitchen, she loves cooking and Amelia makes a good sous chef. They have a few more things they would like to change about their kitchen – adding an island, a range hood, track lighting and a mosaic tile backsplash.
Kitchen Before
In the main bedroom, they would like to expose the chimney bricks and add a wall wardrobe.
Much of the art in their home are pieces they picked up at local festivals (they love Craftin’ Outlaws!), at stores such as Wholly Craft, Flower Child, Grandview Mercantile, or things they have found on their travels.
Italian Village has been a wonderful neighborhood for their first home purchase. Amelia has become the coordinator of the Italian Village Blockwatch and has found the neighbors great to work with. It’s an area she and Becky love and are happy to be a part of.
[Interested in starting your own Blockwatch? Click Here]
At Home is a monthly column on Columbus Underground focused on urban home remodeling and style as well as older home renovations and unique homes in Columbus. If you would like to have your home featured in the At Home series, please send an email to me at [email protected].
[At Home is sponsored by The Hamilton Parker Company. Located in Columbus, Delaware and Cincinnati. The Columbus Showroom, open to the public and located at I-670 and Leonard Avenue, features brick & stone, ceramic tiles, garage doors and fireplaces for your home and landscaping projects. Click here for current promotions or stop by their showroom. M-F 8-5pm, Sat 8-noon, Extended hours Tue & Thur 5-7pm]
