Completed client project. The owners of the two-story house on Solera Drive in Sonterra, Lodi, came to us wanting the whole home to feel more useful without undoing its new construction. Built in 2026, the detached, approximately 2,880-square-foot home sat on a 5,000-square-foot lot and had five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Its kitchen, dining area and great room opened into one another, while a guest bedroom and full bath occupied the first floor. Upstairs were the primary suite, three more bedrooms, a loft and the laundry room. We focused on more useful storage, better layered lighting and clearer places for everyday things, while keeping the rooms and services that already worked.
The photographs on this page are from the Designed & Curated portfolio and show finishes we have used on other projects. They are not photographs of this house.
My first question was how the owners wanted the house to work differently from morning to evening, and which parts already felt right. On site, we measured the open living area and traced the kitchen and laundry services before settling the scope. The records showed central heating and cooling, a gas water heater, public water and public sewer, plus 220-volt circuits in the kitchen and laundry. We found the kitchen’s gas range, double ovens and island sink already served their intended locations. The foundation type was not recorded, so we kept the sink and other plumbing in place rather than basing a decision on an assumed foundation. The home's recorded room details and dimensions guided our measurements, but we made the design choices in the rooms themselves.
The kitchen and its fixed services
The kitchen already had Midnight-painted cabinetry, satin nickel hardware, Calacatta Abezzo quartz and GE stainless steel appliances. We kept those finishes and the island, with its sink, and used the existing pantry closet as the starting point for a more organized storage arrangement. We added fitted interior organizers and made the pantry shelves easier to use, instead of relocating plumbing or replacing sound cabinetry. The gas range and hood remained on their existing run, and the dishwasher stayed beside the island sink. Keeping these service points fixed made the kitchen easier to use without turning a finish project into a utility relocation.
We also kept the connection between the kitchen, dining area and great room. Lodi’s recent single-family closings showed a median build year of 1965, with 41% of homes built before 1960 and 65% before 1980. The median home measured 1,523 square feet on a 6,526-square-foot lot, and 7% had an HOA fee; the most common decades were the 1950s, 1960s and 2020s. That local context helped us treat this newer, more open house on its own terms rather than impose an older-home layout on it (Redfin, Lodi sold homes).
The great room, patio and shared floors
The great room measured approximately 19 feet 10 inches by 15 feet 7 inches and had a cathedral ceiling. Its 15-foot multi-slide glass door opened to the covered patio, so we preserved the open ceiling line and the direct indoor-outdoor route. We installed layered lighting, with general illumination through the shared space, focused light at kitchen work surfaces and dimming where the family relaxed. We kept the existing hood and range locations and made no change to the home's central heating or cooling.
The house had carpet, laminate and tile. We mapped the transitions before the finish work, then kept the hard, easy-care surfaces continuous through the kitchen, dining area and great room, while retaining carpet in the upstairs bedrooms and loft. The covered patio remained within its existing footprint. On the regular, fenced backyard, that left the usable yard intact and preserved the wide opening from the great room for moving between inside and out.
The foyer, loft and upstairs rooms
The first-floor guest room measured 13 feet 3 inches by 12 feet 1 inch and sat near the full hall bath. We kept it flexible for guests or office use, and added a foyer bench with closed storage so bags and shoes had a home near the entry. The attached two-car garage had direct interior access, making that foyer storage useful without taking space from the guest room or great room.
Upstairs, we fitted the 13-foot 3-inch by 15-foot 7-inch loft with built-in shelving and closed storage. The additions gave the room places for media and reading while leaving its central area open. The laundry room stayed near the primary suite, and we kept the washer and dryer connections and the existing 220-volt service. We did not add a skylight through the tile roof. In the primary bath, the double vanities, shower stall and soaking tub already supported separate routines, so we improved storage and kept the existing plumbing arrangement rather than reducing circulation to enlarge the shower.
For the permit review, we checked the interior electrical and finish scope and kept the work within the existing house footprint. The recorded building climate zone was Title 24 zone 12, which we considered in the lighting decisions; the project did not add a patio extension, roof opening or relocated plumbing. The tile roof, stucco walls and stone veneer accents remained unchanged.
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