Working from home became more challenging for Shaun Winters when he and his wife, Alisa, expanded their family. The only option was using a small, door-less space in between the kids’ bedrooms in their three-bedroom, two-bath Brookhaven home of seven years.
“It wasn’t really conducive to working from home with the baby in one room and the second baby coming,” said Shaun, 34, who works in the hotel industry.
Working with Bradford Smith, an agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the couple purchased a Sandy Springs home and moved in just before their son, Hudson, was born in February.
The priority
Finding at least a four-bedroom home, preferably with a basement. “Space is what drove the decision to move,” Shaun said.
The search
The Winters spent two weeks viewing homes before finding the home they purchased. Their search centered on the district with Fulton County schools with strong reputations — Heards Ferry Elementary School, as well as Riverwood High School, which Shaun attended.
“My sister used to live on this street, so we knew it has lots of kids, which we really liked,” said Shaun, adding that the location also was near their parents’ homes.
The home was a short sale, so it took four months to get approval from the bank and close on the property in late December. They decided to rent instead of sell their former Brookhaven home because home values in Atlanta appear to be rebounding and they wanted to hold onto the home for a longer period of time, Shaun said.
The home
The Sandy Springs home, built in 2001, has five bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths and a finished basement. “It fit our mold perfectly because it was big enough. There is a bedroom in a basement that I was able to convert to my office,” Shaun said.
Other features included two fireplaces, hardwood floors, granite countertops and an island in the kitchen, separate living and dining rooms, and a deck. A keeping room provided a place for the kids’ toys, including a play kitchen for daughter Ella, who is 2 1/2.
The updates
The couple worked with design-build firm Four J Homes on updates before they moved in. Great American Floors refinished all the hardwood floors on the main level and upstairs and installed new carpet in bedrooms and basement. Santos Painting and Contracting repainted the entire home, including the baseboards and ceilings. After moving in, they also relandscaped the yard, including planting a new row of trees in the back, replacing crumbling brick pavers, and making room for a play set and fence for their dog.
The master bathroom and closet were tackled this spring. Working with architect Ken Apple and Four J Homes, they added custom cabinets to increase storage space, refinished the existing cabinets, and retiled the floors and shower. A claw foot tub replaced a Jacuzzi tub, and Corian countertops were swapped out for marble countertops.
The tip
Check out activity in the neighborhood, such as looking for children playing together outside. “When we would come by, we would talk to the neighbors,” Shaun said. They discovered that nearly 30 children live on their street, providing plenty of playmates for their kids.
