A southwest Rochester home has transformed into a 'beautiful home'

Rebecca Mitchell, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Apr. 21—ROCHESTER — Debbie Price has many homes across Rochester. Places that feel like home, where she has spent hours poring over the design and worked to build a one-of-a-kind home.

She said handing over the keys to the owners and transitioning to ringing the doorbell at the homes are hard days. As the owner of Zen Custom Homes, Price loves creating special places for people, such as the home at 2225 Crest Lane SW. The home has open-concept spaces while mostly following more traditional design choices.

While designed with the original home's footprint, the plan was to add taller ceilings and utilize the foundation. But after over 50 years of supporting the home, the foundation needed replacing along with the rest of the home. The knock-down rebuilt home with five bedrooms and five bathrooms was featured in the Spring Showcase of Homes, hosted by the Rochester Area Builders organization, on Saturday, April 20.

"It really turned into just a beautiful home," Price said.

The 6,500 square-foot house features curved roof lines that "give the exterior a really soft appeal as opposed to a lot of the homes we see that just have the peaks," Price said. She noted another nice detail is the marble tile coating the floors in checkerboard and mosaic patterns.

"It's still really coming together but the kitchen is amazing," Price said. "I like the way this space planning came around, because most of homes we see today are so very open-floor plan. Even though we were working with the original footprint of this house, I really like that it's a kitchen and then within the kitchen there's a seating area with a fireplace and then a separate room that's the dining room and the living room."

Over the next couple of months, a set of glass doors will be added to the library/office space and wood beams will span the kitchen, basement, living room and master bedroom. "The house will change a lot," Price remarked while looking at the empty rooms and cabinets.

"I just love the design but I love the design of all of our homes. We pour our heart and soul into it," Price said. "We never, ever, ever build the same home twice, or even similar. We try to always really be different with every home we do."

The Spring Showcase of Homes continues from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 21, Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28. For more information, visit the

Rochester Area Builders website.