The standard joke between Dr. Mitch Cohen and his wife, Jean, through the years is that they either needed to do something to update their home or move.
They haven’t moved. Remaining in their northeast Atlanta home for 31 years, the couple has made renovations and freshened up the design to keep the home from looking dated.
“We don’t sit back and let things get old. We tend to see what the latest colors and trends are and constantly updating and painting and doing trim and making it look better,” Jean said. “Our house is the most valuable thing we have and we’re here so much that we want it to look nice and to look like 2012.”
Snapshot
Residents: Dr. Mitch Cohen, who is retired, and his wife, Jean
Located: Northeast Atlanta
Size: About 3,700 square feet, four bedrooms, three baths
Year built and bought: 1981
Renovations: Added a breakfast room and sunroom (originally a screened porch) to the back of the home in the 1980s, as they needed more space for their family. (They raised their children, Lindsay and David, in the home). The sunroom has floor-to-ceiling windows and a skylight. "It's where we spend most of our time. It's so cheerful," Jean said.
In the early ’90s, they removed the “old, disgusting wallpaper and linoleum floor” from the kitchen, Jean said. “We decided all that had to go.”
They kept the same galley-style layout, but flip-flopped the locations of the stove and refrigerator. New cabinets, a tile floor, a pantry and desk were added. Elsewhere on the main floor, they replaced the carpet from the ’80s with hardwood floors.
Architectural style: Traditional
Favorite architectural feature: The catwalk spanning the second floor, overlooking the family room. "It has an unusual walkway. It was one of the things that really drew us to the house," Jean said.
Interior design style: Eclectic
Design consultants: Angela Cain of Nouveaute/Angela Cain Interiors and landscape architect Graham Pittman of E. Graham Pittman and Associates
Favorite outdoor feature: The pond in the backyard that Mitch and son David built in 2001. "It was a labor of love," Jean said.
Best tip: Last year, Jean inherited a dining room set from her parents, the Viking Oak line by Indiana-based RomWeber, which is one of the oldest residential furniture makers in the U.S. She turned her living room into the dining room to make the large hand-carved pieces fit. "People have said, 'I never thought about doing that,'" she said.
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