Homeowner has passion for perfection

Art Grossman is not an engineer, architect or interior designer.

But he knows what he wants. And he knows how to get it.

A lot of folks would have been satisfied with the kitchen and much of the interior of the 3,062-square-foot waterfront townhouse in Boca Raton, Fla., that he bought in 2004. Grossman had other ideas.

His renovation of the townhouse, built in 1980, took two years and what he describes as “a six-figure investment” in materials and labor.

During the renovation, his work crew gutted the townhouse to the studs, reshaped rooms, evened a sunken floor, replaced the wiring, updated the flooring and added a more powerful air-conditioning system. He even brought in a natural gas line from the street so he could have a high-end Thermador grill in his kitchen.

Grossman and his girlfriend, Annette Pitnick, finally got their dream home, but the renovation was plagued with problems. The original permit took two months to go through because the city was backlogged. Then came the triple threat of hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma. Grossman fought with the contractor and fired him, supervising the job himself.

“I was here every day for 11/2 years,” he said. “It took two years because of the hurricanes. In the middle of construction, Hurricane Frances came and broke the windows and wet the dry wall.”

Not only was Grossman on site to supervise the job, he said he also designed much of it himself, including the kitchen, the stairwell, the bathrooms and the loft. He sketched his ideas and hired an architect to do the drawings and a general contractor to supervise the work.

Grossman may not be a professional, but he learned a little bit about renovation while running Grossman Bros., the recycling business he owned in Milwaukee until 1998. When he moved the company to a new facility with a 15,000-square-foot warehouse, he figured out how the building was to be set up and served as his own general contractor.

In South Florida, he said he flipped more than 15 houses, fixing them up and selling them.

The room he is most proud of is the kitchen. The beautiful, undulating cabinets are topped with a veneer made from figured sapelli, a wood from Africa that has a wavy grain and a golden luster. The counters and backsplash are created from five slabs of Juparana mahogany granite. It took him more than four months to find the right granite, which had the movement he wanted to match the curve of the cabinets.

“I had a dream that I didn’t want any square corners in the kitchen,” he said. “I wanted something that no one had ever seen before, and I wanted to say that I designed it.”

He got what he wanted, but it wasn’t easy for him or the cabinetmaker. The kitchen took six months. He sketched his ideas, which the architect translated into plans for the workroom.

And some of the ideas took thinking outside the box — such as the curved wooden front on his Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer. It took wood that was 21/2 inches thick to get the proper curve. A large rounded corner area became a pantry.

Grossman and Pitnick went to the factory once a week for six months to track the progress and make changes to the design. All the veneers had to match, and he required the factory to redo several of them because the grain wasn’t perfect.

“They got very aggravated,” he said. “It took three times longer than they thought it would, and they were on contract.”

Another obvious change was the opening of the loft. The original design had a half wall, and the previous owner installed shutters on top of the wall for privacy.

Grossman, who said he suffers from claustrophobia, wanted to open the loft up. His solution? Remove the shutters, tear down the half wall and add a railing of glass and metal.

The loft, which he uses as an office with furniture he designed, now features a spectacular view of the water.

When he moved in, he knew right away that the fireplace had to go.

The living room, which has a lot of windows and glass doors to show off the Intracoastal Waterway and the Boca Raton Resort & Club, had no place for television. Removal of the fireplace created an entertainment area with room for three flat-screen televisions: a 56-inch and two 27-inch.

But don’t ask him about the latest plots of most prime-time TV. And he doesn’t subscribe to the premium movie channels.

“On a Monday night during football season, I might watch wrestling on one screen, football on another and ’24’ on the other,” he said. “But I would only use sound on ’24’.”

Although he has flipped houses for resale, this one is different.

“This one isn’t for sale,” he said.