Scope

Mark & Stephanie owned a modest house on a corner lot in Marblehead. It had served them well for many years, but there were certain aspects they wished were different. There was no access to the house from the driveway without going through the basement-level garage. The kitchen was modestly sized, but not sufficient for Stephanie, a caterer, to entertain at home. Upstairs, the three-bedroom house needed a larger master bath and more closet space. They also needed an additional bedroom for their growing family. They approached us with a well-defined program to make this all happen while they remained in the house.

A couple of years later, Mark & Stephanie were redeveloping their yard, and they came back to Approach Architects to design their pool-side cabana. This multi-purpose building was to include a changing room, bathroom, wet bar, sleeping loft, and storage for towels and pool equipment. Taking cues from the main house, we developed an inviting retreat for the family and their guests.

Our Approach

The changes the client wanted were fairly evenly distributed between the first and second floors, so we proposed a two-story addition off the rear of the house to accommodate all the new spaces. This would allow the family to live in the front half while work progressed on the rear side.

The rear wall of the house was moved out 14' to accommodate the new kitchen. This provided plenty of space for a large kitchen with commercial appliances, an eat-in island and breakfast corner. There was also room for a kitchen office, a wet bar, and a large pantry. A smaller mudroom addition was located on the side adjacent to the driveway, for easy access. With the exception of the kitchen, all the interior spaces were unaffected.

On the second floor, the additional space was large enough to accommodate all of the client’s wishes. We added a fourth bedroom on one side and a generous master bathroom on the other. Outside the bedroom, we expanded the common bathroom and added a laundry room. We also added a walk-in closet outside the master bath.

The Details

It was important to the client that the addition feel like it could have been a part of the original house. We worked hard to extend the rooflines from the existing house into the addition. On the second floor, the new windows and trim match the older windows. In the kitchen, we were able to place larger windows and a sliding patio door so that they were screened from the street.