Before & After: A Thorough Renovation Primes a Portland Home for Aging in Place

Cary Hixton and her husband, Barrett Jackson, originally purchased their four-bedroom, one-bath Craftsman-style bungalow in Portland, Oregon’s North Tabor neighborhood because they wanted a home with extra space for their "boomerang children." But after 20 years, the children had grown and now had families and houses of their own—and the couple realized that their needs had changed.  Their upstairs was, for the most part, unused and the first floor had its challenges. "I think if you stay in a house long enough, at some point, it won't fit your needs anymore, and that is certainly what happened to us," explains Hixton. Rather than move, the couple decided to renovate. 

The couple found a contractor, Glen Ford, to start on what was going to be just a simple kitchen renovation. Ford introduced them to several interior designers, and they felt an immediate connection with Stephanie Dyer of Dyer Studio, engaging her to design their kitchen. But as they began working on the plans to update the kitchen, they started to discuss their unused second floor—and soon decided that they were ready to remedy the upstairs as well. "We are newly retired," explains Hixton, "and hope to age in place, so tackling the upstairs meant changing it to meet our current needs and also providing us with a better chance of being able to stay here as we age." It also meant that Dyer needed to pin down the couple’s current needs in addition to anticipating their future needs—and design for both. 

Before: The Upstairs 

The first order of business was to transform the upstairs and its two small bedrooms with very small closets, rearranging the space to create a master bedroom suite with a master bath and a home office at the top of the stairs with the flexibility to someday house a future caretaker. 

Additionally, Hixton and Jackson are used to traveling often and having house sitters stay in their home to watch their dogs. With this in mind, Dyer made sure that the couple would be able to close off their personal space upstairs and keep it totally private from house sitters. "Closing the door at the bottom of the stairs when we leave town means that house sitters have complete access to everything on the first floor but our space is completely private, which I love," Hixton shares.