Olney, MD - Residential/Commercial Historic House

NARI CotY "Merit" Award Winner 2003

Brief Explanation of the Scope of Work

This historic house In Olney Maryland was originally built in 1880 when Georgia Avenue was a dirt road between farms leading to markets in the District to the south and Gettysburg and Pennsylvania to the north. When the client approached us to renovate the house it was in very sad shape. The original historic house with its small root cellar had been added on to at the back with a big poorly constructed addition with vinyl siding. The client wanted to use the building for an antique store as well as a country home & guest home for her many guests.

1) The two greatest needs of the client were to rationalize the first and second floor plans and renovate the house. On the first floor the client wanted to add a kitchen (none existed), a laundry area, and a handicap accessible powder room. On the second floor the client wanted to replace the existing, crumbling, bathroom with two bathrooms and a hallway connecting the back two bedrooms to the front of the house. Previously you had to walk through the existing bathroom to get from one end of the second floor to the other.

2) As you can see from the before and after floor plans we greatly enhanced the existing structures functionality. The traffic flow from front to back on both floors was improved by creating a hallway on both floors.

3) The enhancements to the existing structures aesthetics were the following, New historically correct roofing; the work included replacing the asphalt shingle part of the roof with wood shake.... 2. In the newer back addition all the windows were replaced with Pella "architectural series" center divided sashes to match the historic windows on the front of the house.... 3. In the back half of the house we also replaced all the interior trim with new custom milled trim to match the original trim.... 4. Carpeting was replaced with new oak flooring in the back half of the house. All the floors were finished. We also rewired the house and installed a new heavy up. Lighting was greatly enhanced to accommodate the retail business (see reflected ceiling plan). New A/C was also installed. The client chose the colors to replicate those of the traditional Swedish farmhouse. In the interests of continuity & budget the vinyl back half of the house was painted to match the front. Safety was addressed by installing exit signs and smoke detectors as per code.

4) The biggest challenge on this project was dealing with the Maryland "Smart codes". Smart codes are supposed to kick in when there is a conflict between codes, residential vs. commercial vs. historic vs. ADA in this case. To make a long story short we needed to go through a special code review. The Maryland" Smart codes", all two hundred pages of them boil down to what three senior code officials say it is. After many months of false starts and conflicting information from the building department we were able to proceed.

Overall Results

The Owner is still unpacking her latest inventory and completing the landscaping.