When they were done, the reworked kitchen opened onto the new family room, blending old and new areas of the house. "We wanted to keep this area traditional looking but with a modern flow," Michael says, pointing to his vintage-style cabinets and wainscoting, and a new floor made from salvaged heart-pine beams.
When he wasn't adorning walls with molding and paneling, creating a coffered ceiling in the family room, or piling on trim around the fireplaces, Michael was fussing over less obvious details. After installing mahogany countertops in the kitchen, he rubbed on a thin coat of polyurethane "and just kept layering—13 coats, one every 6 or 7 hours," he says, to create an impervious-to-water surface.
Sink and faucet:Kohler Cooktop, ovens, and downdraft:Wolf
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