When Barry and Jennifer Crowell decided to move eight years ago from their Norcross Road neighborhood in Hixson, they had no intention of buying a home on Signal Mountain.

“I never dreamed of or even wanted to live on the mountain,” Mr. Crowell said.

Now, the Crowells say they can’t think of a better place to have settled.

“It’s just so peaceful and quiet here. We love it,” Mrs. Crowell said, comparing it to the hustle and bustle of their busy former community.

The home the Crowells chose on Anderson Pike was not what Mrs. Crowell had envisioned when starting their search.

Mr. Crowell, 48, is a supervisor at Mueller Company. Mrs. Crowell, 53, is deputy administrator for Hamilton County Clerk Bill Knowles. Their two sons are grown, and they said they didn’t need a lot of space.

“I wanted a one-story house (to avoid stairs), and I also didn’t want a house with a garage facing the street,” she said.

In the end, they chose a two-story house with the garage facing Anderson Pike.

Mrs. Crowell said she knew from the beginning that the house would need renovations, but she saw the potential.

Carpet in the living room and up the stairs was immediately removed, making way for hardwood floors that Mr. Crowell installed. The kitchen floor with tile that did not suit their taste was replaced with vinyl covering, which was recently changed to hardwood flooring.

help from builder

Last fall, the couple brought in builder Henry Tipton to complete plans they had been developing over the course of their seven years in their home.

First on the list came a complete overhaul of the kitchen. Everything was removed to make way for new kitchen cabinets made of hickory by a friend of Mr. Crowell’s. Lighting was put in place to highlight gleaming new granite counters. Stainless-steel appliances replaced older ones.

An exterior wall was removed between the kitchen and an old sunroom. A new room was erected in the same space as the sunroom with Sheetrock walls and expansive windows across the back.

Adjacent to the sunroom was a screened porch connected to the dining room. Mr. Tipton enclosed the screened porch, making it into a large back entryway that now opens into the dining room and a new, 16- by 24-foot master bedroom suite with a lighted tray ceiling. The suite also includes a jetted tub with separate shower in the bathroom and a walk-in closet big enough for a dressing table that once belonged to Mrs. Crowell’s grandmother.

The original master bedroom, closet and bathroom took up the same space now occupied by the bath and closet alone. The current bedroom was once the deck.

Walls are painted neutral earth tones, including Cress green (sage) and beige hues of Braided Raffia and Apple Spice Cake.

The opposite side of the house also underwent a makeover. For years, the washer and dryer, located in the garage, had to be accessed from outside, as there was no entry from the garage into the house.

The Crowells had Mr. Tipton enclose about six feet of the garage, as well as make an entry from the house into the new laundry area and garage. This expansive new area also includes a large pantry and extra, L-shaped storage space. The old kitchen cabinets were painted and recycled for use in the laundry area.

Mr. Tipton has been in the construction business since 1967. He said the only obstacle his crew ran into was the availability of materials. When the shower the couple had ordered came in three weeks late, “that just dominoed on us,” he said.

Mr. Crowell plans to add a large deck off the back of the house in the near future, but for now the couple can sit back and appreciate the work they’ve endured on their home.

“Everyone kept telling us that when this was all over, we were going to love it. It took a while to get here, but I do love it. Don’t you?” she asked her husband. “We can grow old here.”

“I think we already are,” Mr. Crowell answered.

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