Page 8 Fall Home Improvement • Sunday, Sept. 21 & Oct. 12, 2025 morrisoncountyrecord. com
Love, patience and fresh paint at the Lindemanns
SHEILA MCCOY MORRISON COUNTY RECORD
Moving into their home in Burtrum in 2018, John and Kim Lindemann knew they wanted to remodel one day. That plan has now come to fruition as the couple hired Doug Prokott to complete the project.
While several areas throughout the house were remodeled, there is one that the couple share as their very favorite— the relocation of the basement stairs to open up the kitchen area.
“ The layout hadn’ t changed since the house was built in the 1980s, so it was time to open things up,” John said.
Prior to the renovation, the stairs to the basement were located in the middle of their now open living room and kitchen area. As the kitchen cabinets and counter rounded near the dining room, it left a small passage from the kitchen to the dining room.
In the new layout the stairway to the basement is located on the east side of the home by the outside wall. Rather than having a straight stairway as they had before, the couple opted for an L-shaped stairway with a landing at the turning point. They couple also had a tan carpet installed on the stairway.
While the changes to the kitchen add a new dimension to the home, John and Kim chose to keep some of the elements of the previous kitchen. One of those elements are the cabinets. Liking the brown wood color, they chose to install a counter top with a brown, grey and white color in a marbled pattern.
“ We actually picked out the floor before we picked out the counters and we thought that they were both pretty neutral,” John said.
The couple had an island installed in the open space between the kitchen and the living room. It features the same type of laminate counter top as under the cabinets.
Kim said she loves the openness of the kitchen. Another bright side of the open layout is that she no longer has to yell to anyone in the other room when supper is done.
In updating their kitchen layout, John and Kim decided to install new appliances, as well. As they like
SHEILA MCCOY / MORRISON COUNTY RECORD Kim and John Lindemann are thrilled to be back home after living with relatives during the time of the remodeling of their home in Burtrum.
the look, they opted for a stainless steel color.
“ They were stainless before, but they were just old. You get appliances that are eight to 10 years old. Especially with kids, they just beat on them, so it was time to get new stuff,” John said.
The refrigerator is a stainless steel, French door style, that allows for two half doors to be opened in both directions versus the traditional one door style.
It also features a large drawer, ideal for lunch meat and other similar products to be stored for easy access.
On the bottom, is a freezer, which works great to store various frozen products in addition to the family’ s large freezer in the basement, John said.
While some furniture in the home remains the same, the couple chose to invest in a new sectional couch that goes great with their decorative style and colortheme.
Initially, they had considered placing the sectional so those who were seated were facing the kitchen. However, after careful consideration, they decided to keep one side of the back of the sectional facing the kitchen. John said by having it the way they do, it allows them to use the baseboard heater.
Near the entrance of the home is a closet. Two new features for it are the black farm door that can be slid back and forth on a track. Not only did it minimize the space used, but it also goes perfectly with their somewhat farm theme. The other well-liked addition was a light inside the closet, John said.
Another big change to the home was the installation of doubled headed mini split air conditioning units in the living room and the master bedroom.
“ These two units keep the whole upstairs cool. The downstairs stays pretty cool, because it doesn’ t have any south facing windows,” John said.
The air conditioning units are not the traditional kind that is placed in a window or run through an HVAC system. As the Lindemann home doesn’ t have any duct work, installing an HVAC system would have been quite expensive.
Contractor Doug Prokott explained that the kind of unit the Lindemanns have is the same as is often seen in hotel rooms.
“ In houses that do not have duct work, it’ s a good option to get air conditioning without having to rip apart the whole house,’ Prokott said.
John said the benefit of the doubled headed mini split air conditioning units is that it allows them to cool individual rooms. That has significantly improved the comfort-level for all family members.
Cooling individual rooms are possible, John said, as the air travels through tubes outdoors that are tucked under the soffit of the house.
“ It was the best 10 grand we ever spent on this, because having air conditioning that is not like a window unit, it’ s been so great,” John said.
Many of the walls throughout the Lindemann home is in the same color.
Not only makes the new layout flow nicer, but also saved money in the end. The couple opted for a blue-gray color.
“ We had a straight gray before and it was kind of depressing, so we wanted to brighten it up, but not too bright. I think this is a nice compromise,” he said.
The master bedroom was painted in a darker grey. Before it was a beige wall color, John said.
The other bedrooms were painted in similar colors, as well. In their son Brady’ s room an exception was made when the trim work was painted white, which added a lot of character to the room.
One bedroom was expanded in the basement and had been claimed by their adult daughter MacKenzie.
The Lindemanns had several new light fixtures installed. Besides the stylish black lights above the island in the kitchen, the recessed lights in the ceiling have made a difference in brightening the home, John said.
Reminiscing, John said while he and Kim had thought about remodeling for several years, it wasn’ t until last year they really started preparing for it. Initially, they had planned a major remodel. It also came down to how much the bank was willing to loan them.
“ Originally, I had big plans. Like, I wanted us to change the roof line and add a garage, an addition, a front porch and a four-season porch under the deck,” John said.
After telling Prokott all of what they wanted, John said they learned the estimated cost for it all would be about $ 500,000. He also asked John a question pertaining to the future. Would the Lindemanns ever foresee selling their house in Burtrum at a cost of about $ 800,000.
“ I told him,‘ Probably not,’” John said.
That led to changing the project to a smaller scale, which still, at that time, included installing an HVAC
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