Modern Home Remodel in Grosse Île, MI
By LL Custom Contracting
Reconnecting a 1958 Home to the River It Was Built Beside
When Tom Jazdzewski and his family looked at their 1958 Grosse Île home, they saw a house with a great location working against itself.
Closed-off rooms broke up the floor plan, the kitchen and bathrooms felt dated, and a large chimney sat right in the path of the river views the home should have been built around. Their goal was to open everything up, modernize the finishes, and finally let the water become the centerpiece of daily life.
LL Custom Contracting reimagined the home from the inside out, opening walls, updating every key space, and clearing the sightlines to the river. The result is a bright, open-concept home that feels current, functions beautifully for entertaining, and connects to its setting the way it always should have.
Location
Project Goals
- Open floor plan with river views
- Bring in more natural light
- Modernize the kitchen and every bathroom
Before the Transformation
One Cohesive Transformation, Room by Room
Turning a compartmentalized 1958 house into a seamless open-concept home meant touching nearly every space, opening up walls, clearing sightlines, and modernizing the finishes from end to end.
Key Features of the Remodel:
- A gorgeous kitchen set up to entertain, complete with a hidden pantry behind camouflaged cabinet doors
- Added windows to optimize the view of the Detroit River (and Canada) from the main entry
- Modernized all bathrooms, laundry, and fireplace
- All new floors that flow between rooms
- Heated floors in the sunroom and bathrooms
- An open-concept layout created by opening multiple rooms and integrating the old three-season room
- A reconstructed primary balcony with Timbertech decking and cable railings
- A redesigned staircase and leveled ceilings for better flow and a cohesive look
Big Ideas Meet an Older Home and a Global Pandemic
A transformation this extensive came with real obstacles, and the first was that view-blocking chimney. Removing the original fireplace proved exceptionally difficult, but it was essential to opening up the river sightlines the family wanted most.
The home's crawl space foundation added another layer, requiring some creative engineering: we cut through the flooring to lower the new furnace into place, then rebuilt above it, all while carefully coordinating the varying ceiling elevations so the finished spaces felt uniform.
On top of the construction hurdles, the project ran through the COVID-19 pandemic, which stretched lead times so far that windows, doors, and cabinets had to be ordered roughly eight months in advance.
Careful planning and constant communication kept it all on track and made solving problems as they came up more efficient.
Where It All Came Together
The real test of a renovation this extensive isn't any single room. It's whether the finished home feels like it was designed as one from the very start.
That's exactly what this project delivered.
Even after touching nearly every space and working around a crawl space foundation, mismatched ceiling heights, and pandemic-stretched timelines, the end result reads as one cohesive, intentional home instead of a patchwork of updates. The floors flow without interruption, the ceilings line up, and the same modern language carries from the entry all the way through the house.
A couple of features, though, really deserve a closer look.
A Kitchen Made for Gathering
The new kitchen is the heart of the transformed home, rebuilt specifically with entertaining in mind.
Open to the surrounding living spaces, it lets the family host without anyone feeling stuck away from the action.
Our favorite detail is the hidden pantry, concealed behind cabinet doors that blend right into the design, keeping storage generous and the sightlines clean.
It's a great example of the small, thoughtful touches that separate a good kitchen from one built around how a family actually lives.
The River View, Finally Unblocked
The single biggest change in this home isn't a finish or a fixture. It's the view.
By removing the original chimney and adding windows at the entry, we cleared the obstruction that had stood between the family and the water for decades. Now the river is visible from the moment you step inside, and the open-concept layout carries that connection through the main living spaces.
It's proof that the most powerful renovation move is sometimes taking something away, not adding it.
A Word from the Homeowners
"From the beginning to the very end of our project, our experience with LL Custom Contracting was very satisfying. The project team was very good about communicating and responding to our requests as they occurred throughout the entire project. The craftsmanship that was demonstrated on this project was very high-end and completed with attention to detail for us. The project superintendent, Steve, was fantastic! His responses to our requests were immediate and were always amongst the best resolutions and/or decisions that were made. Overall, we were more than pleased with LL Custom Contracting and would definitely recommend them. Very happy with our project's outcome!"
Tom Jazdzewski
Thinking About Transforming Your Home?
If you love where you live but your home no longer fits the way your family wants to live, a renovation may be the right next step.
LL Custom Contracting helps homeowners plan large-scale renovations with a clear understanding of scope, budget, and what it takes to make an older home work better. If you're picturing an open-concept layout, a modernized kitchen and bathrooms, or better sightlines to the water, our team can help you start with the right questions.
Contact LL Custom Contracting to talk through your goals for your home.
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