When George and Catherine Cleary bought their northwest Columbus house in 1996, it had a lot of great things going for it: good structure, solid design aesthetic and rustic location, to name a few.
One thing the 1943-built house didn’t have was a tub in the master bath. Catherine wanted one and George, owner of local remodeler the Cleary Company, said he would make it happen, but only when he could do it right. Other, smaller updates took precedence, as did raising their three children.
Almost 24 years later, Catherine finally has her tub – and a hell of a lot more. In a massive renovation concluding in summer 2018, the Cleary Company replaced the entire master suite, creating a retreat with a spacious bedroom, high-tech bathroom and private courtyard.
“I literally get to start and end my day in a spa,” George says. “It’s incredible.”
George worked with Cleary Company Design Department Manager Laura Watson to design the new space and work out all the intricate details. It’s built to impress; it won a 2019 Contractor of the Year award from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry in the category of Residential Addition Over $250,000.
The Bathroom
While the Clearys use to take steps to prevent visitors from seeing their old master bath, the new one is a showpiece.
“The awesome thing about the bathroom is the overall look and the theme of bringing the outdoors inside,” says George.
Among the couple’s priorities was making the outdoors part of the home experience. The property has rural character with a lot of scenery, but four-foot overhangs made it hard for natural light to get in.
To remedy that, windows were incorporated wherever possible. Both the bathroom and bedroom have floor-to-ceiling window walls.
Beyond the shower entry, there are several measures throughout the bathroom – wide doorways, floating vanity and shower bench, tankless elevated toilet – designed to ensure it remains accessible for years to come. Other bathroom highlights include a heated floor and an elevated, backlit slab of Brazilian granite that extends into the shower.
The two-person shower, with zero threshold entry, is positively loaded with features. Among the most noticeable: the LED screen that transformed a dated bathroom into a smart bathroom, allowing easy adjustment of lighting and music.
The wall-mounted handheld shower head is only one of the options available in the shower. There are also two showerheads flush with the ceiling, recessed into the tiles, plus another above the shower bench that makes steam showers a possibility.
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The Bedroom
The bed is mounted in a platform, lending something of a European element to the bedroom. It has built-in drawers on either side.
Surrounding the window at the head of the bed is an accent wall of reclaimed barn shiplap.
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The Courtyard
Because an entire bathroom wall is open to the outside, measures had to be taken to ensure the couple’s privacy. That’s where the courtyard comes in. It’s enclosed by a nine-foot perimeter wall.
“It’s underneath a gorgeous tree, so the courtyard is canopied,” George says.
The courtyard is a Zen garden, with lighting and multiple water features contributing to a calming atmosphere. A spacious deck, equipped with speakers and furniture to deepen the retreat theme, is stationed just outside the bedroom.
The stucco walls in the courtyard are brightened with landscape lighting to create the perfect ambiance. The stone incorporated into the wall comes from a stash that George unearthed from the back yard, buried thereafter the house was built.
“It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to embellish the courtyard,” he says.
For when the weather is too nice to stay inside, an outdoor shower is installed just on the other side of the glass from the indoor one.
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Garth Bishop is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
