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Two years ago, Amelia Costanzo and Becky Harrison were looking for a home to buy. They had always lived in rentals and wanted something to call their own and make colorful and fun. Amelia had mostly lived in the Short North area and Becky lived in the Old North and OSU Campus areas. They both grew up in other areas of the state – Becky in Youngstown and Amelia in Cleveland. Amelia went to college at Ohio University and made frequent stops in Columbus. Eventually she decided to stop here permanently. “Columbus always felt right to me,” she shared. “It feels like a big city, but you always see someone you know.” Becky likes the diversity of Columbus and the strong support the GLBT community has here. It’s also a great place for shopping locally.
They found their 1300 square foot, 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo in Italian Village. It was a very dirty foreclosure that they got for a great price. Just cleaning the place took about a week. Then they worked with contractor Chris Anderson to remove a built in closet in the dining room and reconfigure their bathroom and laundry area. They also added a brick patio in the backyard, replaced doors, added a fence, landscaped their front yard, replaced the roof and updated the plumbing and electrical. So they have been busy! Keep reading to see some of the before photos and their beautiful place now.
Italian Village was a great place for them to find their home. They love that everyone is remodeling their homes and contributing to the up and coming aspect of the neighborhood. Being able to live an urban lifestyle and walk to everything they want to do after work-hours is also a major benefit to their location. Amelia is able to take the bus to work sometimes and Becky has a quick commute to her work. Some of their favorite places to go include Marcellas, Surly Girl for brunch, Carabar, the North Market and Haiku.
Dining Before
Dining After
Their cozy colorful style includes several pieces of furniture that Amelia picked up for cheap and made look beautiful with paint. She’s also repurposed things to serve in other areas of the house such as the outdoor tables that are now bedside tables. Her mother has also helped out with reupholstering the dining chairs, making the purple ottoman in the living room and actually making the fabric for the black pillows in the living room.
They recently completed the bathroom and laundry room renovation. The narrow awkward layout of the bathroom was changed to enlarge the space. The wall next to the staircase was partially removed, opening the space and adding light. Adding the laundry upstairs was a great decision. The month long renovation meant spending lots of time at the laundromat, a task they are happy is over. They also redid all of the tile in the bathroom. The entire bath/laundry renovation ran about 11k.
Bath Before/After
The sitting area that had previously mostly been a waste of space is now a sunny spot in the house to do other tasks like ironing. In the hallway, they added a pull-down staircase to easily access the attic. It’s an easy to install kit that you can get at a hardware store to make access to your attic a cinch.
They love having a large beautiful space to host dinner and brunch parties for friends. Becky is right at home in the kitchen, she loves cooking and Amelia makes a good sous chef. They have a few more things they would like to change about their kitchen – adding an island, a range hood, track lighting and a mosaic tile backsplash.
Kitchen Before
In the main bedroom, they would like to expose the chimney bricks and add a wall wardrobe.
Much of the art in their home are pieces they picked up at local festivals (they love Craftin’ Outlaws!), at stores such as Wholly Craft, Flower Child, Grandview Mercantile, or things they have found on their travels.
Italian Village has been a wonderful neighborhood for their first home purchase. Amelia has become the coordinator of the Italian Village Blockwatch and has found the neighbors great to work with. It’s an area she and Becky love and are happy to be a part of.
[Interested in starting your own Blockwatch? Click Here]
At Home is a monthly column on Columbus Underground focused on urban home remodeling and style as well as older home renovations and unique homes in Columbus. If you would like to have your home featured in the At Home series, please send an email to me at Anne@columbusunderground.com.
[At Home is sponsored by The Hamilton Parker Company. Located in Columbus, Delaware and Cincinnati. The Columbus Showroom, open to the public and located at I-670 and Leonard Avenue, features brick & stone, ceramic tiles, garage doors and fireplaces for your home and landscaping projects. Click here for current promotions or stop by their showroom. M-F 8-5pm, Sat 8-noon, Extended hours Tue & Thur 5-7pm]
How nice! These gals are long time regulars of the James& Becky even guest bartended one Friday. They (and their home) are a great asset to the IV neighborhood!
very impressive!
Awesome ladies, awesome house. LOVE this.
Really love the choices in color scheme!
I love this so much that I actually registered on this site just so I could say so! I love love love the dining room and wish there were a few more shots of the living room. Our color scheme is very similar — shades of gray with lime greens. Our sofa is charcoal and the walls will be light gray, but I don’t have the eye to accessorize at all. Your room has been a great inspiration, thank you!
The fabric for the curtains looks painfully familiar, but I can’t see it large enough in these photos to identify it. Is it ThomasPaul or Duralee?
I had a couple more shots of the living room, so I added them in!
Thank you all for the compliments. Making a home is fun and definitely hard work.
@MarvelousMrsP, the curtains are from Pier 1!
Great home! The walls in the bedroom look amazing. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent home. I really enjoy the dashes of green throughout. I can’t help but notice the great vintage furniture throughout. Nice.
Love all of the colors, and the before-and-after photos are always great additions to these articles to get an idea of how much work was done. ;) Very nice!
Very nice. It brings back so many memories of the big brick house with fireplaces upstairs and down that I lived in with my mother and brothers clear back in the fifties in Italian village. Your home is very nicely decorated! Thanks for the memories- hmm…sounds like a good title for a song!
wow! your new place is amazing. so happy for you guys. and the colors are so perfect! i would never have thought to use a dark color like that in the bedroom and i absolutely LOVE it
The dark colors on the walls looks fantastic! It’s a great complement to the bright colors of all the accessories. Great work!
Lovely!
Press Release by Alexandra Kelley Fox:
[Note: October is Crime Prevention Month]
Short North Block Watch Launches Today
New Program Promotes Safety & Collaboration Among Neighborhoods
COLUMBUS (October 18, 2011) — The Italian Village Society and Short North Civic Association have formed the Short North Block Watch. This new community engagement resource allows Short North area residents to share information, foster collaboration, and promote safety. Participating neighborhoods include Italian Village, Victorian Village, Harrison West, Dennison Place, The Circles, and the High Street Business District.
On October 18, the existing “Italian Village Block Watch” Facebook profile will convert to a “Short North Block Watch” page http://www.facebook.com/theshortnorthblockwatch and shortnorthblockwatch.org will go live. The Facebook page will serve as the program’s master hub, while the website will let people register for email alerts, search and file crime reports, access crime prevention tips, and send messages.
Each Short North neighborhood will have a designated block watch coordinator and email address. This framework enables neighborhoods to easily share information across boundary lines and to be recognized as a larger entity. Neighborhood block watch coordinators will operate their own programs as they fit, and will be encouraged to post updates related to street sweepings, street light surveys, and other area projects.
“We’re really excited about this opportunity,” said Amelia Costanzo, who managed the Italian Village Block Watch and will oversee the Short North Block Watch. “It enables us to share information efficiently, and to work together in a greater force to prevent and combat crime in our neighborhoods.”