Megan McTavish

[ChrisL]

Take a look at the 10 pics...

http://www.courant.com/features/home/hc-mc...53.photogallery

AT HOME WITH • Megan McTavish

Room For 'All My Children'

With Kitchen Redesign, Soaps Writer Creates A Special Space To Groom And Bathe Her Beloved Bernese Mountain Dogs.

When it came time for longtime soap opera writer Megan McTavish to remodel the kitchen of her historic Colebrook home, she kept in mind the needs of her five family members — Gus, Sophie, Faith, Mac and Poppy.

The family needed room to spread out. Floors that couldn't be easily damaged. And, oh yes, space to store dog food, bowls and leashes.

"These dogs are my passion, my kids, my family," McTavish said of her five Bernese mountain dogs. "They live in my house, they live with me, and this whole kitchen redesign has made that much easier. I got the kitchen of my dreams."

So did the dogs.

In fact, the dogs got their own room.

The kitchen — originally L-shaped and about 500 square feet — was divided into one large space dominated by a center island and a new brick hearth framing the cooktop area, and two smaller spaces, a butler's pantry on one side and a dog room on the other.

The dog room has a bank of Shaker-style cabinets that organize all the dog supplies. There's one drawer just for leashes, another for grooming supplies, still another for dog bowls. There's storage space for towels, and recycling pull-out cabinetry. Instead of plastic bottles and glass jars, the cabinets house bins of dog food.

In one corner of the room is a raised grooming bathtub and a fold-away grooming table. The floor was tiled, for easy clean-up and durability, and portions of the walls near the tub were tiled as well, so they can easily be wiped down when the dogs shake after a bath.

The dog room is divided from the kitchen by the bottom half of a Dutch door topped with a new sill, a height just right for the dogs — who range from 80 to 100 pounds — to peek over to see the activity in the kitchen.

Paul J. Knierim, owner of Cabinet Studio Kitchen & Bath in Avon, designed the renovation and supplied major components such as cabinets, counters, hardware and tile.

He said the project was unique, and not just because he was designing space for dogs.

"In today's world, most kitchen renovations involve taking down walls to make the kitchen space bigger," Knierim said. "But this was the opposite. It was already a large space, and we were putting up walls to create space that felt comfortable and open, but that was better organized for the dogs."

In all, the kitchen remodel took almost a year from the start of design until the kitchen was completed last December.

The process, though, seems right out of the script of a soap opera.

There were delays with supplies, a leaky roof, drainage problems that had led to rot in the framing of the house, and even extensive termite damage in the support beams in the main portion of the old kitchen.

"It's a hard process," said McTavish, who has written for a variety of soap operas the past 20 years but is best known for her work as head writer for "All My Children." "I'm not good at delays. And for me, I work at home, so to be out of my home during construction was very difficult."

McTavish left the soap in 2007 — after creating some of its most memorable characters, including Ryan Lavery and Kendall Hart. She also generated controversy among longtime fans, particularly for her story lines involving beloved character Erica Kane.

McTavish bought her Colebrook house in 1993 as a second home and getaway from her main — but much smaller — apartment in New York City. She since has relocated there full time. The home was built in the 1830s, with additions added between the 1920s to 1940s that eventually linked the original main house to what was once the ice house.

The property includes 34 acres with a swimming pool and orchard, as well as a guest cottage where McTavish lived for six months during the kitchen renovations.

Over the years, McTavish has renovated or updated much of the main house and cottage, but she held off on the major kitchen renovation, a project she deemed too large to tackle while also writing television scripts, which she labored over for more than 12 hours a day.

So the family lived with the kitchen they had, the dogs coming in from outdoors, sometimes wet and muddy, right into the kitchen space. Dog food was stored in the coat closet by the front door. Dog beds were spread out in the kitchen. And, on the occasions when McTavish welcomed a new litter of puppies, sheets of linoleum were laid out to help protect wood floors.

The dog room has changed all that.

"I knew the problems, but I had no idea how to fix them," McTavish said. "I've never worked with designers before, but what I discovered was their advice, suggestions and expertise was invaluable."

Some of the materials used in the new kitchen were also selected with the dogs in mind, most notably the wood floors, which are reclaimed antique oak.

"It's not one shade; there's natural distressing, so my dogs' toenails aren't ruining a brand new wood floor," McTavish said.

But the redesign wasn't all about the dogs. McTavish had a second challenge, creating a state-of-the-art kitchen that would fit with the character of, as she said, "this great old house."

"I wanted it to look old-fashioned," she said. "I didn't want stainless steel. I wanted it to look homey."

McTavish credits the new brick hearth with setting the tone for the renovation. The hearth, made of pale bricks, surrounds the central cooking area, framing a blue six-burner Aga range. She selected cabinetry in different colors — a rich chocolate brown for some, a soft cream for others, all with an antique finish — and added granite counters with a honed finish that takes the shine off.

McTavish also expanded her kitchen space by bumping out the kitchen with a bay of nine windows, an area that floods the kitchen with natural light and makes up for the room's low ceilings. The new bay area houses a large dining table.

"I had a hideous kitchen and the house was so pretty and needed the kitchen to match," McTavish said. "Now it does. I think it's just beautiful."

[Sylph]

We've already read this. It was posted in The Directors and Writers Thread.

[ChrisL]

Yikes! Ryan... someone... please delete!

[LeClerc]

Got that right lady. Oh wait, she was talking about her home.

[DevotedToAMC]

She looks like she has lost some weight

[Jonathan]

Two bitches kissing, how nice! (Oops sorry, that slipped.)

[detroitpiston]

[Tishy]

As this is already being discussed in the Writer's and Director's thread, I am locking this thread. Please discuss in there. Thanks!