“Not that I would recommend the timing!” laughs Mary. “It would have been better to stay in our current house while this remodeling took place, instead of having to wash dishes in a bathroom sink in our new home. But new owners were moving in to our old house. We absolutely wanted this kitchen project done right away and, well, that’s just the way it worked out.”
It may have been a difficult time for the Gunlocks but, oh, the results! In addition to the kitchen and dining room, the couple did significant transformations to other rooms, including major remodels of the master bath and lower level. The result is a you’ve-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it fabulous home, situated at the end of a charming cul-de-sac.
Mary and Bo, married 30 years this summer, found the home in 2010. They had had a series of residences in south Dayton, starting with their first home in Oakwood. Bo grew up in Centerville (Centerville High School, Class of 1978) and Mary is from Detroit. The couple met at the University of Michigan, married and came together to the Miami Valley. It was a 1930s two-story Colonial home in Washington Township where the Gunlocks lived when children Emily and Stephen attended St. Charles Elementary and Alter High School.
Bo is a partner at RG Properties, a real estate company currently developing Austin Landing. As their kids were getting close to leaving home, Mary, an at-home mom, decided to pursue a career in real estate.
“I’ve always been interested in real estate and I truly love houses,” says Mary, who has been with Irongate Realtors since the start, achieving President’s Club five years and being named as a Sales Leader for six. “Plus, Bo has been able to help me a lot in understanding the technical aspects of business.”
When the kids left — Emily now lives in Chicago and Stephen in St. Louis — Mary and Bo put their house on the market.
“We were looking for something easier to live in, still close to our work and friends,” Mary recalls. “We wanted to live on one level but needed rooms for when the kids are here.”
It was at an open house that they discovered the stone house in Washington Township with almost a full acre of wooded solitude.
“We loved so many aspects of this home and property,” recalls Mary. “The architecture was so different from our Colonial. That was fun — we were ready for something different.”
“There’s little maintenance on this place, starting with the fact that there’s no grass,” Bo says with unsuppressed joy.
A French drain system allows the home to be gutter-free.
“The gutters are actually in the ground,” he explains. “There’s a nice grade to the property that enables the water to drain downhill.”
The Gunlocks made sure renovations were possible before they purchased the 3,300 square foot house.
“It had a 1970s look to it so we wanted changes throughout,” says Mary. “We could see the potential this house held.”
“Let’s see what the old girl can give us.”
The Gunlocks turned to Al Manning of Manning Contracting in Kettering for the extensive remodeling to be done in phases, starting with the kitchen/dining room.
“Al is my best friend’s husband and he does great work,” Mary says. “He built my brother’s custom home in Springboro so I know his insistence on quality.”
Al and Bo both agree it was Mary’s vision that also guaranteed such splendid results.
“I like every style of decorating but this kitchen called for a contemporary look,” she says. “I wanted it simple but not sterile. Most of all we wanted this kitchen opened up ... opened waaay up.”
The kitchen is in the front of the house. Down came the wall separating it from the adjoining dining room with its full length windows. This one change enabled the great outdoors now to be seen from the kitchen.
And up went the kitchen ceiling. Al and his team created a pitched ceiling to complement the ceiling of the dining room.
“Al called the house the ‘old girl,’ and on project after project would say, “Let’s see what the old girl can give us,’” recalls Bo.
“This house was very well built by John Duckro,” says Al, who has 30 years of new home building and remodeling experience. “It was a matter of taking it from the 1970s into a beautiful and unique home for today.”
Space was shuffled around in the kitchen and small adjoining rooms to create a workable and wonderful new footprint.
The Gunlocks selected striking European frameless kitchen cabinets built by Dan Bettinger of Creative Cabinet Concepts in Middletown.
“The cabinets are lyptus, a South American wood,” says Dan. “It grows in abundance and can be harvested in only about 15 years, making it a good environmental choice.”
“Everything flowed from the cabinet decision, including selecting the chestnut floor, the glass backsplash and the color of granite countertops,” Mary says.
Mary also chose red accents, including pendant lighting.
“Because the room was all brown and woodsy, it needed some pops of color,” she explains.
The Gunlocks love their new kitchen, and who wouldn’t? They begin their day here and often have dinner right at the island. (Shh! Sometimes they enjoy the kitchen television as they eat. Empty-nesters don’t have to worry about family dinners.)
The remodeling continued ...
The Gunlocks had Al and his talented team undertake other major changes throughout the home, following Mary’s natural instinct for how to take this home from dingy and dated to fabulous and fashionable without losing its natural look and Arts & Crafts influence.
Happily, in the main-floor family room, the two-story fireplace (that rivals the outdoors as the focal point) did not need to be altered. But elsewhere in the room, off came the grasscloth wallpaper; the sorry carpeting was removed to make way for more hardwood flooring. The family room faces the woods and Mary divided the long room into two seating areas, including a pair of can’t-resist comfy chairs positioned to enjoy the view. Few interiors have such an intimate relationship with the outdoors; the Gunlocks’ home is a stellar example of doing it right.
A deck surrounds the family room and dining room, offering an even closer view of the wooded estate. Al Manning converted it from a traditional deck to a handsome area with Ipe decking. Best of all, the bulky railing and companion benches that previously interrupted the view were replaced with a steel rail and thin stainless-steel cables that offer see-through safety.
Mary enjoys working in the first-floor office with its built-in bookcases but admits that the outside can distract her. Every room is all about the view, she says.
A first-floor hallway passes a guest bedroom then leads to a handsome master suite. The spacious bedroom has windows-on-the-world and comes with a delightful companion room, a small study that Bo and Mary love. They call it their “treehouse” because the ceiling-to-floor windows on three sides of this room give an incredible view of the woods, four seasons a year. It’s a place to curl up on the comfy furniture and watch your very own “nature channel” outdoors.
The sensational master bathroom will knock your socks off. Al and his crew completely gutted the previous space — which, in addition to having a blue-grey tub and other remnants of the 1970s — was home to a very unusual room.
“There was this, I guess you would call it, environmental room,” says Bo. “It was a closet-like space with a giant tanning bed. You could add jungle steam, rain, wind and more to the room by pushing control buttons. There was also an eight-track player.” That area is now a simple closet.
The design of the new bathroom is breathtaking. The same luscious cabinetry used in the kitchen is suspended over the beautiful travertine floor, which is heated, by the way. A contemporary bathtub with rounded upswept corners matches the pair of sinks. A wall of glass and stone tile behind the pair of vanity mirrors gives the room sizzle.
There is a spacious lower level in the Gunlock home. When you see the comfy rec room, it’s hard to imagine that the room used to sport weary wallpaper, old carpeting and dated lighting. Mary says that all changes in this area were really just cosmetic but have made a night-and-day difference.
One door from the rec room leads to an outside path underneath the upper deck that extends to an exercise room, inaccessible from elsewhere in the home.
“It’s the way the entrance had to work but the plus side is because of the windows in the room, we can watch deer while we work out,” says Mary.
Another doorway from the rec room leads to a new hallway where major renovations have occurred. It was Bo’s vision that made this new area possible.
“Al and his crew went through a previous dead end to access a storage area that used to only be accessible from the outside,” Bo reports. The space was converted and the new hallway now leads to a pair of guest bedrooms and baths, and now easy-to-reach storage.
The home’s second-floor loft area overlooking the family room offers another guest bedroom, making a total of four guest rooms in the home.
This loft area is built around the top of the magnificent stone wall which is a star of the home. On the first floor, one side of the wall becomes part of the home’s entry, handsomely accented by the work of local artist Mike Elsass. On the other side is the fireplace in the family room.
Financially speaking
It’s interesting to talk to Mary and Bo, both of them in real estate, about whether or not the money they have put into their home is a good investment. Will they get their money “out” of the home at selling time?
“Probably not,” says Mary, showing the openness and honesty her clients love about her. “We did these changes for us, to make the house where we want to live. This wasn’t an investment decision. It was to create the home we love. And we do love it.”
Is it their forever home?
“We’re done,” Bo says with conviction.
“But we’ve said that before,” Mary adds with a smile.