Eagle Residence: a whole-home remodel and addition in Omaha
The Eagle Residence is an addition and remodel, which is a harder brief than a new build and, on the right house, a far better one. The lot is the sort you cannot buy new, wooded and private with a pool, and the owners chose to transform the house that sat on it rather than start over somewhere plainer. That is the whole case for a remodel: you keep the setting and the bones that are worth keeping, and you rework everything else to a modern standard. The result is a house that feels entirely new inside while staying exactly where it belongs. What follows is a walk through it, with a note on what an addition and remodel really involves, because it is not the same job as a new build and it is worth understanding before you start.
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The setting and the pool
A remodel only makes sense when the thing you are keeping is worth keeping, and here it plainly is. The house sits on a wooded, private lot with a pool, the kind of mature setting that takes decades to grow in and cannot be bought new in a fresh development. That setting shaped every decision inside. Walls of glass were opened where the trees are best, the stair was glazed to borrow the view, and the main living spaces were turned to face the garden and the water rather than the street. Building new somewhere else would have meant trading all of that for a bigger blank slate, and the owners made the opposite call. Keep the land, keep the privacy, keep the trees, and put the budget into making the house itself match the quality of what surrounds it. On a lot like this, that is almost always the right trade, and it is the quiet logic behind the whole project.
The entry
The entry sets the tone for the whole remodel in a few steps. Wide openings framed in black lead the eye straight through the house, a round sculptural chandelier marks the arrival, and a patterned rug grounds the hall against the pale floor. In the old house this would have been a closed, dark hallway. Opening it up and framing the sightlines in black is a modern move that makes a remodelled house feel considered rather than patched, and it does the quiet work of telling you, the moment you walk in, that this is not a tired home with a few new finishes. It is a house that was taken back to the studs where it needed to be and rebuilt with intent.
The great room
The great room is where the remodel earns its keep. A dramatic marble fireplace wall anchors the space, a glass railing opens the room to the level below rather than walling it off, and a wood slat feature adds warmth against all the stone and glass. This is the kind of open, connected living space that older houses almost never have, because they were built as a series of separate rooms. Getting it here meant taking out walls and rethinking how the floor flows, which is exactly the work a remodel is for. The payoff is a room that lives like a new build, bright and open and modern, inside a house that kept its lot and its history. The furniture is kept low and generous so the architecture and the fireplace carry the room.
The fireplace
Worth pausing on, because it is the piece the whole great room is built around. The fireplace is wrapped in a chevron-laid marble that catches the light, with a long linear fire below and a screen set cleanly above. A fireplace like this is a statement, the kind of focal point a room organises itself around, and it is finished to a standard you would expect in a far more expensive build. In a remodel, a single bold architectural element like this is often what tells you the house has genuinely changed rather than simply being refreshed. It is the moment the room stops looking like an older house with new paint and starts looking like something designed from scratch.
The kitchen
The kitchen is dark, rich and confident, built around a black marble island with a waterfall edge and lined with leather stools. A long linear pendant runs the length of the island, wall ovens sit flush in the cabinetry, and the whole room reads as a single considered piece rather than a collection of appliances. Kitchens are usually the heart of a remodel, because they are where an older house dates itself fastest and where the biggest visible change happens. This one was taken somewhere genuinely high end, dark and dramatic where most kitchens play it safe in white, and it sets the tone for the level the rest of the house works at. It is a room that looks expensive because it was done properly, not because it is loud.
The staircase
The staircase is a floating run of treads set against a wall of glass, so you climb it with the trees outside filling the view. In the original house a stair like this would almost certainly have been a closed, boxed-in flight against a solid wall. Opening it up and glazing the wall behind it turns a purely functional element into one of the best moments in the house, and it pulls the wooded setting inside, which is the whole reason to remodel on a lot like this rather than build somewhere ordinary. It is also a reminder that the hardest parts of a remodel are often structural, the things you cannot see, and that this is where the real work and the real value sit.
The living room
A second, softer living space opens straight to the outdoors through a wall of sliding glass, so the pool and the trees become part of the room in summer. The furniture here is relaxed and generous, a place to sit with the doors open rather than a formal room kept for show. Connecting the inside to the outside like this is one of the biggest gains a remodel can deliver on a good lot, because older houses tend to treat the garden as something you look at through a small window rather than step into. Here the line between the house and the setting is deliberately blurred, which is exactly what you want on a private, wooded property with a pool a few steps away.
The dining and flex room
One room keeps a wall of exposed brick, a deliberate nod to the character of the original house set against the modern finishes everywhere else. A round table and a pair of sculptural chairs make it work as a dining spot or a flexible room that can shift with how the family lives. Keeping a single honest material like brick is a smart remodel move, because it stops a renovated house from feeling like it was scrubbed of all its history and rebuilt as a blank modern box. The contrast, warm old brick against clean new lines, is what gives a remodelled home depth that a brand new build often lacks, and it is the sort of judgment call that only comes from designing the house as a whole.
The primary bathroom
The primary bathroom is a spa in everything but name. A sculptural concrete freestanding tub sits as the centrepiece, a floating vanity with a round mirror runs along one wall, and a hexagon tile floor grounds the whole room. Bathrooms are among the most involved parts of any remodel, because they hide the most behind the walls, plumbing, waterproofing, ventilation, all of which has to be reworked rather than simply resurfaced. Doing it properly is what lets a room like this feel calm and resolved rather than patched together. The result is the kind of private retreat people picture when they decide to remodel instead of move, and it is finished to a level that matches the public rooms downstairs.
The powder room
The powder room is small and deliberately dramatic, wrapped in dark marble with a round mirror and a floating vanity. It is the one room guests use alone, with the door shut, so it can carry a level of drama that would be too much spread across a whole floor. Lining a small space entirely in marble is the sort of move that reads as expensive because it is, and a powder room is exactly where that spend lands best, since the room is tiny and the impact is large. In a house of this level it is the final confirmation that nothing was treated as an afterthought, down to the smallest room on the floor.
What an addition and remodel really involves
A remodel is not a new build with the roof already on. It is often harder, because you are working with what is already there, the existing structure, the old services, the surprises behind every wall, while trying to end up with something that feels seamless. An addition adds another layer, joining new space to old so the join does not show. The reward is that you keep what cannot be rebuilt, the lot, the setting, the mature trees, the location, and change everything that can. On a property like this, that trade is clearly worth it. The hard, invisible work, the structure, the services, the way old meets new, is exactly what separates a remodel that feels like a new house from one that feels like a house with new paint.
How it came together
What makes the Eagle Residence hold together is that it was designed as one house, not as a list of rooms to update. The dark, rich kitchen, the marble great room, the glazed stair and the brick dining wall all speak the same language, so the house reads as a single deliberate piece rather than a sequence of renovations done over the years. That consistency is harder to achieve in a remodel than in a new build, because you are always negotiating with what already exists. Carrying one vision across the whole project, and handling the design through to the finishes, is what lets a remodelled house feel this resolved. The setting was kept, the bones were reworked, and the result is a home that could not be bought new at any price. None of that happens by accident, and on a remodel of this size it is the difference between a house that feels genuinely rebuilt and one that simply looks freshly decorated.
Frequently asked questions
READY TO BEGIN?
The Eagle Residence shows what a remodel can do on a lot worth keeping: a house that lives like a new build while staying exactly where it belongs, handled as one project from the structure through to the finishes. If you are weighing a remodel or an addition around Omaha, start with a conversation. Call (402) 235-8276 or use the contact page, and we will talk through what your house could become.