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"   &amp;quot;I liked the West Hollywood community, but home prices were high and I couldn&amp;#039;t see myself living in a condo,&amp;quot; says Randy Lipnick, a Los Angeles-based landscape designer-contractor. &amp;quot;When my broker unlocked the door to this abandoned building, I saw holes in the ceilings and floors, damage from a leaky roof, and plumbing that was really disgusting. But when I turned around and looked at those tall living room windows with sunlight pouring in, I heard myself say, &amp;#039;I like this place.&amp;#039; &amp;quot; Like turned to love when an 11-month repair and restoration job yielded results the owner now points to with pride. Working with architects John Hersey and Christopher Richartz, the new homeowner refinished and patched damaged oak flooring, pulled up worn vinyl in the kitchen, replaced leaky jalousie windows and restored all the others, upgraded the master bath, and turned two hall closets into a lav and laundry room. They made the most of underused areas throughout the home, artfully maximizing the small dwelling&amp;#039;s space. What helped inspire the project was the prospect of revenue. Randy&amp;#039;s new living space was half of a two-family structure embracing nearly identical side-by-side 1,200-square-foot layouts. Except for needed repairs and upgrading, the rental unit stayed mostly the same. &amp;quot;We took kitchen cabinetry out of Randy&amp;#039;s unit and retrofitted it for the other one,&amp;quot; says Hersey. &amp;quot;In Randy&amp;#039;s kitchen,&amp;quot; adds Richartz, &amp;quot;we designed new custom cabinets, in painted hardwood, that mimicked original built-ins in the dining room and elsewhere in the house. The center island is oak, rift cut to show off vertical grain lines and stained the same color as the floor. The dining side has a raised counter that&amp;#039;s a single piece of rift oak.&amp;quot; Kitchen countertops and backsplash areas are stainless steel, as are appliances, cabinet hardware, and the undermount sink. The single-lever faucet is polished chrome. Randy wanted a more open design, so instead of a long hall with doors opening into the kitchen and bedrooms, he expanded the kitchen and master bedroom and turned the second bedroom into a sitting room. In his bathroom, the tub was resurfaced, while the sink was replaced and relocated. &amp;quot;Randy wanted to use as much as could be salvaged from the original structure,&amp;quot; says architect Hersey. But, &amp;quot;I chose new wall colors for the interiors,&amp;quot; the homeowner says. &amp;quot;And I made sure the modern touches I wanted worked with the existing style.&amp;quot; Inside and out, and in both duplex units, new and old are beautifully balanced. Click here to see the resources. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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