By Susan Ingram
Since the Eder family moved into their Windermere home in Rockville in 2004, they’ve been happy with the well-cared-for 1970s colonial.
But Anne Eder knew she wanted to redesign the cozy cottage kitchen into an open, inviting space for family gatherings and entertaining.
“Our kitchen was very small. We were looking to open up the layout and knock down a wall and combine it with our family room,” Eder said. “Our family room also felt very small. During COVID when working at home and sitting on the couch at one end, it really felt like we were in a cave.”
Enter Jendell Construction, Inc., a design-build firm founded in Rockville in 1982 by brothers Mark and Phil Cantor.
“Our main forte is design-build, architectural, in-house design, kitchen design, all types of renovations,” Phil Cantor said. “We also do new home specs throughout the year.”
At the Eder home, the plan was to open up a very compartmentalized first floor.
“We redid the first floor, took out structural walls, added new structural components and made a big open-air room,” Cantor said. “Just by joining the breakfast room, the kitchen and the family room.”
Anne worked with Cantor and Jendell designer Karen Weinstein on the design and making the best of existing features, including the family room’s fireplace and large picture window, and wide doors onto an octagonal screened-in porch.
“When you’re designing a large open space, you’re creating multiple focal areas that are designed around function,” Weinstein said. “What’s kind of fun about this particular home, is that it already had some wonderful things going for it. So, once you took the wall out between those two spaces, you had this wonderful architecture to group each function around.”
So, the small, dark, closed-in kitchen, breakfast and family rooms gave way to a bright, open-space concept that enhanced those existing features, allowing the light from the picture windows and porch to flood the home.
“It all came together and all the space flows together nicely. It’s just got beautiful, natural light. And I don’t feel like I’m sitting in a cave anymore,” Anne said. “They did a beautiful job; beautiful craftsmanship. Now the kitchen and family room are one glorious space with that big bay window and a French door and another window looking onto our backyard and garden. And they put in a beautiful new fireplace. We had an old brick fireplace, definitely circa 1970. We could not be happier.”
