ALFRESCO LIVING

WILMINGTON-BASED REFINED RENOVATIONS AND ANDOVER-BASED ANDOVER LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION BLUR THE LINES IN THIS ANDOVER RENOVATION.

- Alexandra Pecci

MANY HOMEOWNERS LOVE THE IDEA OF "indoor-outdoor" living, but often, the "outdoor" part of that equation is an afterthought.

However, for one home renovation project in Andover, that indoor-outdoor ethos was embraced from the very beginning, thanks to a thoughtful and collaborative design process between two separate firms-Wilmingtonbased Refined Renovations and Andover-based Andover Landscape Design and Construction-which worked together from start to finish.

"It's an awesome finished product because it's holistic thinking, and it was very thoughtful in the beginning," says Russell Stott, owner of Andover Landscape.

The homeowners fell in love with the property because of its location on a pond, which was perfect for their young daughter, who's an ice skater. The family had "a vision of all these winters where she's going out back and ice skating on the pond and hanging out by the fire pit,” says Jim Buhrer, owner of Refined Renovations.

The home’s bucolic location made yearlong indooroutdoor living an important element right away. Such early collaboration between firms is rare. But this time, Andover Landscape started working with Refined Renovations “before Jim even stuck a shovel in the ground,” bouncing ideas off each other throughout the design process, Stott says. The result is a home where the inside and outside “harmonize and integrate into one.”