Completed client project. The owners came to us for a whole-home remodel of their 2026 house on Enid Drive in Trestle, Waterford. It was a two-story, wood-frame home with stucco exterior, about 2,311 square feet, five bedrooms and three bathrooms. They wanted the neutral rooms to feel warmer and more useful, while keeping the open kitchen, dining area and great room connected. The kitchen already had gray cabinets, quartz counters, stainless appliances and a large island, and the main rooms shared vinyl plank flooring. Upstairs, four bedrooms, two baths, a laundry closet and a carpeted loft completed the layout; a fifth bedroom and full bath sat near the main-floor entry.
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 whether the attached two-car garage needed to remain a garage. The owners wanted the home to work better throughout, but parking and internal access were part of the house’s everyday function. On site, we found the garage connected directly to the house and the flat, fenced lot had no detached structure. We kept the garage for parking and household storage, rather than converting it to living space. That decision let the work focus on the rooms the family already used, without changing the home’s footprint or losing its covered parking.
The attached garage and the main-floor route
The garage door led into the home’s main-floor circulation, near the bedroom and full bath. We kept that bedroom’s role as a flexible guest or multigenerational room, and reworked its closet for more practical organizing. We also kept the garage-to-house route clear, so the entry remained useful without treating the kitchen island as a drop zone. The attached garage, main-floor bedroom and bath formed a workable arrival sequence, and preserving them kept the house’s existing arrangement intact.
The wood-frame construction and two-story layout shaped how we approached the upstairs rooms. We found the side-by-side washer and dryer in an upstairs laundry closet, with electric hookups, and kept the laundry there. The record also listed 220-volt service in the laundry and kitchen. We retained the existing electric cooking arrangement and did not add appliance loads as part of the remodel. Keeping the kitchen and laundry equipment in place kept the work focused on finishes, lighting and storage rather than expanding the service scope.
The island, backsplash and connected living rooms
The kitchen already opened to the dining area and great room, with a pantry closet beside the kitchen and sliding glass doors to the backyard. We kept the sink and its existing run off the island, which remained a prep surface and seating for three. We left the sound quartz counters and gray cabinetry in place, then added warmer wood-toned details and a taller, more expressive backsplash. The continuous vinyl plank floor stayed through the kitchen, dining area and great room, so the connected rooms retained one clear visual line.
The kitchen and great room had recessed ceiling lights, but the broad shared space needed softer layers at the places people gathered and worked. We installed pendants over the island and added wall lighting in the living area, coordinated with the existing recessed lights. The house had a Spanish-tile roof and central, multi-zone electric heating and cooling, so we kept the ceiling and roofline unchanged rather than introducing new openings or roof penetrations. The result was warmer light in the open rooms without changing the systems that served them.
The large windows and sliding doors brought daylight into the great room, but the existing curtains gave the owners limited control over glare and privacy. We installed layered window treatments at the sliders, keeping the view and access to the enclosed backyard while giving the family more control over light. The lot was flat, with low-maintenance planting and wood privacy fencing. The public soil survey mapped Greenfield sandy loam, deep over hardpan, with gentle slopes and well-drained conditions; FEMA mapped the site in flood zone X. We kept the outdoor work light and did not add a patio cover or major grading.
The loft, baths and home services
Upstairs, we added built-in shelving and closed storage in the carpeted loft, using its large corner windows as the open side of the flexible room. In the bathrooms, we added medicine storage and shelving while keeping the quartz counters, chrome fixtures and existing plumbing locations. The primary bath retained its tub and shower combination, and the secondary baths kept their existing fixtures. The public water and sewer connections remained in place, and the City of Waterford supplied the home’s water service (Utility Billing). Since we kept the fixture count and locations, the work did not call for an added plumbing connection. We also kept service access clear, because owners remained responsible for the sewer lateral on their property up to the city main (Waterford sewer lateral responsibilities).
Waterford required permits and inspections for remodel work that altered interior walls, electrical, plumbing or mechanical systems, under the California Building Standards Code (City of Waterford building requirements). We kept the walls and plumbing in place, and obtained the required permit and inspection for the added electrical lighting work. The owners also kept existing water-meter and sewer connections; the city’s rules tied service connections and sewer work to city requirements, so retaining the existing services informed our decision not to add fixtures or reroute plumbing (Waterford utility rules).
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