Tony Tye, Post-Gazette The addition to John Benzinger's house in Middlesex, Butler County, is a great room with a wall of windows. Click photo for larger image.

John Benzinger didn't particularly like his house, even after living in it for 10 years and doing some remodeling. But he loved the location, on a country road in Middlesex, Butler County, with mostly farms and small houses as neighbors and a pond across the road.

"Where could I go in Cranberry with a view like that?" he says, gesturing toward the pond from his spacious side porch.

He might never have had that porch but for a hailstorm in spring 2001. The storm tore off vinyl siding, broke windows and sent a large tree crashing into the house, cracking its foundation.

"The back of the house looked like someone took a machine gun to it," said Benzinger, 37, vice president of information technology for Service Link, a national title and closings company based in Hopewell, Beaver County.

For his insurance claim, he turned not to contractors he'd used before but to Dave Myers, a vice president for North Side-based contractor J. Francis Co. Benzinger then was working with Myers' wife, Michele, at FreeMarkets. He liked the Myerses and checked out the company's work, something he hadn't done in the past.

"I thought I got a good deal on previous work, but I had to keep getting it fixed," Benzinger said. "I wanted to do it right this time."

All he had J. Francis do at first was repair the storm damage. But soon Benzinger was thinking much bigger. By August 2001, he and Myers were talking about a major addition that would add more than 1,000 feet to the house's 1,800 square feet of space. Benzinger wanted a combination game room/weight room with an indoor pool. Or he thought he did. As he and Myers talked about it, Benzinger began to realize that a pool would create humidity problems and a chlorine odor in the rest of the house, and the wall of windows wouldn't give swimmers much privacy.

Tony Tye, Post-Gazette The living room's fireplace mantel reaches to the 17-foot ceiling. Click photo for larger image.

Benzinger vacillated back and forth on the project, almost buying another house in Shadyside at one point. Finally, in the summer of 2002, he decided to stay and make the plain little house the home he had always wanted.

Over the next 10 months -- while he and roommate Terry Cribbs continued to live there -- J. Francis redid the kitchen and nearly every room in the house, added covered porches on the front and side, and connected two wings with an 880-square-foot two-story great room that retains the poolhouse's window wall -- minus the pool. Benzinger jokingly calls it "the room that FreeMarkets built."

In the process, he says, he spent three times what he paid for the house in 1992. Does he worry that he'll never get his money back?

"I wasn't doing it for resale," he said. "I love the location -- it's so quiet and peaceful. I wanted something different that I could put my stamp on.

"I got exactly what I wanted."

Helping to drive up the cost were several upgrades -- bigger and more ornate trim, better windows with low-e and UV-blocking coatings, extra shower heads and body sprays in the master bath, new hardwood floors throughout.

But Benzinger didn't get everything he wanted. He sometimes regrets not springing for an electronic lighting system, particularly useful during parties and other times when he wants mood lighting.

"His budget wasn't unlimited," Myers said. "There were trade-offs."

To keep the project close to budget, designer Ed Grentz of Indovina Associates did lots of elevations and other drawings. In addition to helping Myers price out the changes, they helped Benzinger visualize what the various rooms of his new house would look like.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette "I love the location -- it's so quiet and peaceful," says John Benzinger of the reason he decided to go for such an extensive renovation. Now his dog, Brandy, has an extra 880 square feet of space to roam around in. Click photo for larger image.

"John is a very visual guy. He could explain what he wanted, and that made our jobs easier," Myers said.

The ceiling in the great room is 18 feet high, for example, to fit the 16-foot-tall Christmas tree that Benzinger wanted. Though the kitchen is narrow, it has a 34-inch-wide Corian-topped island with two stools, as Benzinger requested. And the new living room fireplace has a mantel that reaches to the very top of the 17-foot-high sloped ceiling because Benzinger admired one like it in Myers' Sewickley Heights home.

But there also were times when Benzinger had to put his faith in Myers' expertise.

"You trust me, right?" Myers said to him more than once. Only about 50 percent of the design for the many-angled ceiling in the dining room came from Grentz's drawings, Myers said. He had to work out the other half on site. And the angled windows that form the gable in the dining room were inspired by a similar look in the great room.

Benzinger said he should have trusted Myers' advice a little more often. When Myers suggested he store his many antiques and furniture in a trailer, Benzinger decided they would be safe enough packed into the basement and the one bedroom that was not remodeled. He regretted it when he, Cribbs and their 15-year-old cocker spaniel, Brandy, were living out of that bedroom during construction, and when a sewer backup soiled everything in the basement.

Benzinger also didn't believe Myers when, early in construction, he hinted that this might be a modular home. He found the proof when he broke into the walls and ceiling of the dining room. The original house was built in four sections in a factory in the 1970s, then put together on site.

"You always suspected," Benzinger said to Myers during a recent visit at the house. "I kept saying, 'No, there was nothing in the deed about that.'

"I was mortified when he told me," Benzinger said. "I wouldn't have bought it."

Despite the hassles, the home-owner is glad he lived in the house during construction.

"I liked seeing the progress," he said. "Some of the ideas came from living here in the middle of it."

But Benzinger admits it wasn't easy having a tarp for a roof for more than two months. And the constant presence of J. Francis workers was "like I had 10 roommates," he said, laughing.

Being close at hand did give him a special appreciation for their work.

"Dave's guys really took the time to do it right, like it was their own home," he said, adding: "And they took wonderful care of the dog.''

Benzinger was so pleased with the result that he's already planning his next project -- the indoor pool and poolhouse that he wanted in the first place. Added on a more sheltered, private side of the house, it would only add to the fun of his parties, which center around the wet bar and plasma TV in the great room, with tunes pounding from 23 speakers and a whole-house stereo system.

Guests who visited Benzinger's house before the remodeling can't believe the transformation.

"They will drive right past the house."