Updating the Ranch-Style Home

Investing in Each Other
Clients come calling after seeing Amy and Warren's work, loving it, and hearing positive feedback about the couple.

"I really like Amy's sense of scale and proportion," says Jaime Davenport, who with her husband, Jim, had renovation in mind when they bought a Buckhead ranch-style house. "I like what she did in our old neighborhood of Garden Hills, and when I met her, we just seemed to connect. She's really laid-back and is very easy to work with."

Many clients like the fact that this builder-and-architect team is also a husband-and-wife operation. "I had seen some of my friends' projects where the architect and the contractor sometimes pointed fingers at each other, saying, 'You designed it wrong,' and 'No, you just can't build what I designed,' " says Jaime. "I thought, 'Well, these two are married, so they're going to have to work it out!' "

A handful of other Atlanta firms specialize in this type of renovation. Although business has slowed with the economy, several homeowners have called upon Amy and Warren recently with investments in mind.

"The new twist that wasn't there a year or two ago is the investment value of remodeling," says Warren. "If you take 15% of the cost of your house and put it into renovation, whether it's just redoing your basement or improving the shell of the house, you're looking at 60% to 75% return on your dollars. People are pulling some of their money out of the stock market and looking for another direction to go with it. Right now, there's no better choice than home improvements."

Renovating proves particularly wise for Atlantans who want more living space but not a longer commute, Amy says. "Some of our clients bought their houses for about $180,000," she says. "We put $200,000 worth of improvements into them, then see them appraise for more than $1 million--all because of the location."

Staying Close to Clients
Most of their clients' homes are within 10 minutes of each other, and all of those are a short drive from the Vaughans' home-based office on West Wesley Road. The backseat of Amy's car, splashed with milk stains by the couple's 2-year-old son, Austin, reveals her working-mother status.

"Many of our clients have children and like children, so I've taken Austin to lots of meetings," says Amy, who graduated with a degree in architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982. "Doing this, we've met the greatest people. They're all trying to get more space for their growing families. That's the best part of what I do. I like contributing to the creation of a nice home where kids will grow up."

Living With Change
Jaime and Jim Davenport and their two children, who were ages 5 and 8 when their home was renovated, opted to live in the basement while Amy and Warren worked on the house. "The minuses," says Jaime, "were being rained on when our tarp blew off, getting gypsum drywall dust in our faces, cooking on portable appliances, and feeling cramped down there. The good thing was being here every day to check things out and follow the progress. It also helped that our kids were younger then--the mess didn't bother them so much."

"Updating the Ranch-Style Home" is from the October 2003 issue of Southern Living.