Philadelphia Weekly

NEWS AND OPINION

CHRIS JOHNSTON & MARTIN DUFFY

By Erik Everts

Add Comment | Comments: 1 | Posted Mar. 6, 2002

Location: Queen Village
Occupation: Art directors

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You completely re-did the first floor of your home. What was the process like?

Chris: We moved here in November of 1999. When we initially saw the house, we knew immediately we would take it. We purchased it with the intention of changing it. We gutted the entire first floor in March of 2001. The house is just under 100 years old.

Martin: When we came in, we envisioned exactly what we were going to do. It was a learning process in timing--how to communicate with contractors and how to deal with vendors. The contracting/construction industry functions to the opposite of how we work in our jobs, which is very disciplined. They work on their own hours--their own time. Deadlines don't really mean much and that created a conflict. We would have preferred a better process, with real deadlines and more efficiency.

Chris: That industry doesn't live by the same rules as any other industry.

Martin: We talked to other people who had the same experience. It seems as though it's just acceptable for some reason. We've discussed reconstructing the whole contracting industry. The project extended out to a full year after being initially quoted a time frame of four to six weeks.

Chris: We figured it would take about eight to 10 weeks realistically, but we never envisioned it taking a year.

Martin: We were married last September and had been hoping the project would have ended by the summer.

Chris: Imagine planning a wedding and living in the midst of chaos. Everyone said if we can get through the construction then we can get through anything in our relationship. It was the tension of planning a wedding times 10.

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So you're just putting the finishing touches on the first floor and getting your home life balanced again?

Martin: We're finally starting to socialize again. Now we want people over and we want to plan parties. The benefits of all the time and work are beginning to pay off. The renovation that we did were with the intentions of making it a social space. At this point we just want to enjoy our home.

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Do you feel ready to show it off?

Chris: In a couple months it should be completed with all the details. We still need handles for the kitchen cabinets and some sort of covering for the sliding glass doors.

Martin: When the weather breaks we'll focus on getting back outside to the garden.

Chris: That was one of our key objectives. Because the space is so narrow in the living room, we wanted to integrate the outside with the inside though the addition of two very large sliding glass doors.

Martin: Our goal wasn't to make the the house like a showroom. We want to pair up the old with the new. It will always evolve and be a work in progress. We wanted people to be able to spill a drink and not freak out.

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