REMODELING PORTFOLIO: ADDITIONS

Growing Up from Ground Floor to Attic

Above. The new rear of the house has decks on all three levels and new window tower   Before. The house had limited orientation to the backyard

This small, close-to-the-city house was purchased by the young couple about five years ago. They are both lawyers and had run their law practice out of their home, presenting cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. When they came to our company, they knew they wanted to enlarge their home for two main reasons:

• They wanted to start a family and needed more bedrooms. There were two bedrooms in the original house and one was being used as office space. The other rooms in the house were small and had very little connection to the outside.
• They wanted to expand their law practice to include more employees and wanted to keep their office in their home. Every square inch of space in the original house was being used, leaving no room for these additional activities.

By the time the design work was done on the addition, the homeowners were expecting their first child, making an absolute deadline for the completion of the the house, The had also moved out of the house into rented space which had a lease that could not be extended.

Walls in the original house were not changed except in the attic, the new office space. The roof of the attic was raised, creating a new geometry of the roof line which in turn helped to unify the old and new parts of the house.

The addition added space to all four levels of the house including the basement. Care was taken to provide adequate head room on all four levels including the basement and the new office space in the attic.

The clients moved in on time and now have the space they need for themselves, their new baby and their three new employees, They judge the project to be a great success.