Scope

Tom and Molly purchased the house on Shorewood Road in the spring of 2000. They purchased the cape with the intention of renovating the house to accommodate their expanding family. The existing house had two bedrooms and a full bath on the second floor with a formal dining and living room space on the first floor as well as a powder room and kitchen.

The goals of the project were to attempt to maintain the traditional cape look of the existing house and to accommodate the following program: formal dining and living room spaces, family room, mud room, kitchen, breakfast area, powder room, play room, (3) bedrooms, full bath, laundry, and master suite.

Our Approach

As we started the design process the question was not if we would be adding on to the house, but rather how big of an addition was it going to be? We developed two initial concepts for the client’s review. The first concept called for the removal of the entire second floor of the existing house, building back a new full second floor, enclosing the existing breezeway, and the construction of a small addition off the rear of the house. The benefits of this scheme were an increase of livable area on the second floor and the construction of a less costly smaller addition. The downfalls were that the cape look of the house no longer remained.

The second scheme we presented enclosed the existing breezeway, removed and then built back the garage with living space above, added dormers to the existing house, and included a large addition off the rear of the house. The benefits of this scheme were the main body of the house was to remain intact and the cape look of the house was preserved. The downfall to the scheme was that a larger more costly addition would need to be constructed.

After meeting with the clients it was decided that we would move forward with the second design concept. We then set out to refine the design and complete the construction drawings and specification.

The Details

In our design, the kitchen and breakfast areas became the heart of the new house. We expanded the kitchen into the new addition so it was immediately adjacent to the new family room. We then enclosed and expanded the existing breezeway. In our new scheme, the breezeway was transformed into a double height space that included the new mud room, breakfast area, and an open stair that connected to the second floor. Having torn down and rebuilt the garage, we located two of the three kid’s bedrooms in the new space. We then connected the garage piece with the main house with an internal “bridge” that housed a new built-in home office and also looked down to the breakfast and kitchen areas below.

The second floor of the new addition, above the family room, was dedicated to the new master suite. The master suite had a large bedroom, walk in closet, and full bath with double vanities. One of the existing bedrooms was then converted to a kid’s play room and laundry area. The other existing bedroom and full bath remained.