After his kids graduated from high school, Dave Saliaris’ five-bedroom home felt too big. He was looking for a smaller, cozier space, and had just the spot in mind.
He owned a ranch-style house in Upper Arlington that he rented for several years. With some additions and upgrades, Saliaris could visualize the house as the home he was looking for.
So, he reached out to Steller Construction, having worked with them on a previous project, and together they created the home of his dreams.
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Making space
The biggest changes Saliaris wanted to see were expanded space and a more modern feel.
“This house was very small,” he says. “The kitchen was so small you couldn’t even put a table in it. My mom actually had a round table she cut in half and put up next to the wall. That’s how small the kitchen was.”
The team increased the overall square footage by adding bedrooms and increasing some of the room sizes. To make the space feel even larger and more modern, the ceiling heights were raised and more windows were installed.
Although Saliaris says he could have followed the trend of building up by adding another floor to the home for the additional bedrooms, he wanted to keep the space to its original single-floor ranch style and build out on the land surrounding the house instead.
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Golf getaway
With a vision of the basement as an entertainment space, Saliaris knew it was the perfect opportunity to bring one of his favorite hobbies into his home.
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Having enjoyed golf since high school, Saliaris worked with Bryan Lipps, owner and CEO of Steller Construction, to include a golf simulator in the renovations.
With Saliaris requiring a 10-foot clearance for his swing, Lipps says they had to lower the floot to accommodate.
“When you go into that basement, it’s multi-level. You step down three or four steps to get into the lower level, where the new golf simulator is, under the new addition,” Lipps says. “There’s always a challenge when you’re tying in an old foundation to a new foundation, and it’s even more complex when you’re doing multi-level foundations.”
Despite the challenges, Lipps and his team created the perfect at-home getaway for Saliaris.
“Being in Ohio, there are a lot of times when you can’t be outside doing much. This gave me (the) opportunity to do things (in the winter),” he says.
Bigger and better
While Saliaris recalls most of the project proceeding as planned, there were a few hiccups along the way. Outside of basement foundation challenges, the team also had to figure out how to support the existing floor plan and roof.
No matter what challenges they faced, Saliaris says Steller Construction Owner and CEO Bryan Lipps and his team always jumped on things as quickly as they could.
“I’m an engineer, so I know that there’s going to be give and takes as we start to work through things,” Saliaris says. “I was here every other day watching things and talking with them. I got to know the general manager of the project really well, and it worked. If I called, he was on it right away.”
Saliaris is happy to be able to keep some of the original building structure.
“Some people would say, maybe we could have just knocked down the whole thing and rebuilt that way,” he says. “But the reality is, we kept the integrity of what was here and made it better. And I kind of like that idea better.”
Rachel Karas is the lead editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at rkaras@cityscenemediagroup.com.
