Patrick and Katie Heublein’s new Upper Arlington home is, in reality, not very new at all.
Though the house was built in 1968, it’s been almost completely reconstructed. The brick exterior walls are all that remain of the original house. The new version is white, twice as large and looks completely different, starting at the new concrete driveway.
The Heubleins’ and the builder’s stories weave an interesting tale about salvaging, designing and expanding that resulted in a 5,000-square-foot home instead of a dated, 2,500-square-foot home with a two-story red brick pillared front porch on three-quarter acres on Chartwell Road, close to Lane Road.
Charming, attractive, impressive. Any and all might describe the painted white brick house with dormers and country-style porches – prominent architectural features that help subtly incorporate an addition and a three-car garage to the rear.
The former Katie Will – who grew up “a couple blocks away,” she says, until her family moved when she was in eighth grade at St. Andrew Middle School – met her husband in Chicago, where she was working as commercial interior design architect. When she decided she wanted to go back home, they moved to a new build in Dublin’s Ballantrae neighborhood in 2008. After the first two of their three sons arrived, thoughts turned to living in Upper Arlington.
That meant remodeling would be likely. Patrick, a commercial insurance salesman able to from anywhere, met Troy Miller – owner of MillerTroyer Custom Homes, Amish Cabinetry and Remodeling – as Miller worked on his prize-winning BIA Parade of Homes entry in the Meadows at Lewis Center. It was designed to look like a reclaimed mill and featured Miller’s specialty, custom-built Amish cabinetry and woodwork.
The Heubleins bought the vacant UA house, which had been on the market for several years, and turned to Miller for renovations.
The couple were involved in most aspects of the remodeling design, especially Katie, who worked with architect Greg Miller of UA-based New Avenue Architects and Engineers on numerous finishing features throughout the home. Because of her architecture experience, she easily spoke the design architect’s language.
Her input included custom cabinets and shelving that are prominent throughout, as well as color, lighting and plumbing fixtures – selections that came from a long list of ideas.
In November 2013, Troy Miller started on the seven-month project. It entailed removing all but one interior wall, all exterior-wall drywall, wiring, plumbing, heating and air conditioning; tearing off the tall porch roof; building a kitchen addition with an excavated basement; adding dormers and two fireplaces; and installing reclaimed wood floors, including an inlaid herringbone design in the foyer. All rooms upstairs and down are reconfigured or turned to new uses.
The original two-car garage is now the family room. The living room is now a study/library with a wall of custom shelves. The dining and family rooms are now the pub and hearth rooms.
The pub has a chair-height bar and back wall made of reclaimed Chicago street-paving bricks from the 1800s. The bricks are a back-home connection for Patrick, a Chicago native. A metal and glass wall separates the pub room from the hearth room, where there’s a paving brick fireplace with a couch and two sofa chairs.
Katie describes the overall look of the interior as “rustic industrial.”
“It’s a little bit modern, but rustic at the same time,” she says.
The large, stunning kitchen features dark base cabinets and marble countertops, white wall cabinets and stainless appliances beneath a vaulted ceiling. An oversized 5- by 12-foot island with a twin sink is the work area, and a second chair-height island half as large is for dining.
It’s where the kids eat and play. If they use markers to color, “It wipes right off the marble,” Patrick says.
The larger marble slab is one piece.
Patrick wired the whole house for a sound system, laid the snap-together floor in the playroom and did all the landscaping.
Varied-width reclaimed wood flooring is used throughout the main level. It’s covered with a new product, Rubio Monocoat, which was mixed with a white oak finish and left a hard surface.
The family room features an impressive wood coffered ceiling and a white wood fireplace front and mantle with bookshelves on either side surrounding windows.
The rebuild included a mudroom, where Miller made four lockers from barn siding. It’s near the back stairs that lead to the upstairs laundry and the playroom. The playroom is plumbed, so it can eventually be converted to a bedroom suite.
The laundry room has yellow cabinets and a white countertop. The nearby playroom is decorated with a colorful, child-height sink and brightly colored chairs.
The master suite with a vaulted ceiling is above the new, three-car garage. It’s down a 30-foot hallway from the main house, and its bath includes a pair of vanity counters separated by a standalone tub beneath a window in a niche along the outside wall. The tub is flanked by a large steam shower and partial glass wall. A walk-in closet is to the rear of that.
The second floor has three bedrooms, one with its own bath and one with a shared bath. For now, Katie says, two boys sleep in one room, and the room with a bath is for nursery care for their 1-year-old.
The rebuilding also went below ground. With additional space under the kitchen addition, the basement was finished, too. There’s a theater with sofa and recliner seating for seven, a full bath and two other rooms not in use yet.
The parents probably spend most of their leisure time in the hearth room, Patrick says.
There will be more to do outside once the weather is more hospitable. The Heubleins are considering adding a fireplace to the 800-square-foot concrete patio, which has exposed pebble for texture.
Miller finished work last July. After just a few months, Patrick says, “We haven’t found a thing we would do differently. We have figured out how to use about every foot.”
The house appeared on the NARI Home Improvement Showcase in September.
Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
