• By Susan Fadem Special to the Post-Dispatch

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Talk about a surprise. Beyond an old-fashioned front porch and a siding-clad exterior — all befitting an updated 1926 bungalow — an unexpected marriage of clean lines, floating ceilings and a minimal color palette awaits.

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To learn that homeowners Megan and Dave Myers met and earned their master’s degrees at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture is to begin to understand.

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To discover that Megan is the fourth generation of her family to live in the formerly compartmentalized six-room house is to dig deeper still into the couple’s layering of detail and light.

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Plus, their ability to talk everything out, from the color cast by a lightbulb to whether the dining chairs should be all-white, as Dave wanted, or each a different hue, as Megan preferred. “Our relationship is based on compromise,” he says.

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Sure enough, four orange chairs and two white ones surround the table in their geometrically vaulted dining room.

Some “floating planes,” as Dave describes their multilevel ceilings, camouflage ductwork. Others inject intrigue as they beckon visitors into the next space.

As her senior project in grad school, Megan took on — on the computer and in printouts — what actually became the total overhaul of the in-the-family home she and Dave purchased in 2004.

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At the Wright school, hands-on learning, along with rethinking and collaboration, are encouraged. Dave, who began drawing as a child, offered drawn-out input. Megan, who early on adored puzzles and math, massively deliberated, researched and fine-tuned.

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Other than install a linoleum kitchen floor, her grandmother, Helen Kaveler, did little to modernize the interior of the home, which still had the original two first-floor bedrooms and one bath.

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Megan and Dave physically undertook 90 percent of the remodeling, with assists from her parents, Godfrey residents Rich and Linda Kaveler.

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Structurally, Megan and Dave removed the wall that had divided public and private spaces. By relocating the front door, they claimed as entry hall what had been a bedroom.

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Upstairs had previously been strictly attic space. By adding a dormer roof and incorporating existing space, the Myerses created a vaulted first-floor dining room and second-floor bonuses including a full bath and two bedrooms (for a total of two of the former and three of the latter, with one still on the first floor).

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What’s more, theirs is an everything-has-a-place, now 2,100-square-foot home. Beneath the entry hall staircase, the Myerses had envisioned more storage. Instead, their pooch’s doggy bed fits perfectly inside.

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Ages • She’s 38. He’s 39.

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Occupations • Megan, an architect and interior designer, has a small business called Side Road Studio. She’s a board member at Jacoby Arts Center in Alton and an adjunct instructor at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey. Dave, an architect with PGAV Destinations in St. Louis, also has his pilot’s license. Both are LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

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Family • Married in 2006, they have a son, Linus, 7; and a daughter, Esme, 4. Their West Highland white terrier is named Dougal as a salute to the breed’s Scottish heritage.

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