330 Homes Summer 2022

d r e a m h o u s e

C heryl and Jim Nilsen, who met in the second grade at Bath Elementary School when they were 8 years old, got married in college. The retired couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year and finally found their forever home in a quiet Fairlawn neighborhood in 2019. The West Akron house they lived in for 34 years and raised four children in was too big for them. “It was a great house to raise kids, but then we decided to downsize,” says Jim. The 1967-built ranch that they bought has great bones in terms of layout and structure, says Jim. Thankfully, the previous owner changed the closed layout. “He had opened up a lot of the walls that you traditionally find in an older ranch home," says Jim. "It was pretty open between the kitchen, din ing room and living room — that made it a nice space to work with.” In the 3 1/2 years Jim and Cheryl have lived in the ranch, the couple has more than made the house their own. Jim did many of the renovations himself under the direction of his wife. “We have a rule. The out side is his and the inside is mine,” Cheryl says. “We have this collaboration with each other that we can see the vision.” Coming from a condo before this home, Jim was excited to have a yard of his own. He pushed out the 4-foot front porch

another 4 feet “to cre ate a more usable space” and added a sandstone capped knee wall. White rockers with neutral cush ions and bright patterned pillows fill the porch. “[We] sit there in the morn ing and watch the sun go up and also in the evening,” says Jim, “we sit and watch people go by, talk to them.” Jim recalls the house had “zero landscaping” when they moved in. “We had no lawn, a plethora of weeds,” he says. The couple added a new lawn and over 300 plants, trees and shrubs. “It’s pretty nice now,” Jim remarks. They got a back paver patio installed, put out a metal dining set and added a firepit circle with metal seating. In the kitchen, Jim swapped in new mission-style cabinet doors and drawer fronts with new hardware. On the back of the house, they added a large room

where there had been a screened-in porch. Jim redid the whole 17-by 14-foot space himself,

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