The Adelsons enjoyed the experience they had imagined. Their boys went to the local public schools, rode bikes to friends’ houses in the neighborhood and vice versa. They made lifelong friends with the families they first met at Hopi Elementary School and created cherished family rituals in their 1955 ranch home. Fourteen years after purchasing their home, when the Adlelsons were finally ready to take the remodel plunge, sentimental attachment was well set. So when they sat down with architect Cathy Hayes, their main priority was for the home to feel the same, but updated. According to Shelley, husband Steve said, “I want to feel like this is the same house that my kids have been in.” They also wanted to keep within the scale and general style of the homes in the neighborhood. Shelley was glad they had waited on the remodel. As a result, she had 14 years’ worth of ideas torn out of magazines to share with her dream team of Hayes Inc. Architecture and Interiors, Nance Construction and Karen Rapp Interiors. Most people think the process of remodeling is something you don’t enjoy, but you endure. That was not Shelley’s take. “I was sad when it was over, almost to tears,” Shelley said. “They were a great team.” They preserved some of the home’s unique features like the partially diagonal orientation, in order to retain the view of Camelback Mountain. And the Adelsons were adamant about recreating the same large, floor-to-ceiling window configuration in the living room. The element frames the view of the trees in the backyard beautifully, and was a striking feature that awed them when they first saw the home. Because of the vaulted ceiling in the living room, the window actually takes the shape of a simplified house symbol: a square with a triangle on top. Other than what Shelley affectionately refers to as, “Grand Central,” the lovely and practical open kitchen, dining and family room, one of the family’s most appreciated features of the home is the boys’ own living room, situated right off their bedrooms. It helps make the Adelson’s home a favorite place for the boys and their friends to hang out. “It’s great when you are having company,” said Shelley. “They can have their own space to come together and not completely take over the whole house.” She recalled the planning of it, “When I thought the room might not be big enough, my husband reminded me that they all seemed to like to cram in the smallest room. He told me, ‘They don’t want it Continued from page 10 Continued on page 14