Remodeling for triplets
Great lessons for living with three big dogs and four little kids
Virginia Donohue and Mark Klaiman were living in an 800-square-foot San Francisco Victorian row house with 300 pounds of dogs ― a Great Dane, a Newfoundland, and a chocolate Labrador ― when they found out they were expecting triplets. A remodel was in order. They reorganized and extended the first-floor living space and added a second floor with three bedrooms and a playroom.
Then, when the triplets ― Sydney, Johanna, and Liam ― were 2 years old, son Quinn arrived. But Donohue and Klaiman had a lot of organizational know-how. They own a company called Pet Camp, where up to 160 dogs and 25 cats can stay while their owners are at work. Monitoring so many animals translated well to planning for a rapidly expanding family. A year and a half has passed, and the handsome, 2,600-square-foot home survives relatively unscathed, thanks to its thoughtful design.
The activity hub of the house is the kitchen/family/dining room at the rear of the first floor. “This is where we live,” says Donohue, who also points out that “everything is kidproofed.” Originally a warren of three tiny rooms and two small decks, this 11-foot-tall room now opens onto the rear yard. “Our yard is set up so we can see (the children) and they can see us,” she explains.
