Our clients purchased this 1940s home thinking the rundown property just needed a cosmetic makeover. As it turned out, the brick walls were damaged in places, the plumbing and wiring were outdated, there was no insulation in the walls, no air conditioning, and drafty single-pane windows. When our team saw it, they thought it looked haunted!
The family of five also wanted to modify the layout to create a large open kitchen with an adjacent mudroom, update all the bathrooms, and install a family room in the basement. The clients had an outline of a plan from a previous designer, but we had to significantly modify it and add repair work that we found during construction.
The family has three kids and both spouses have busy law careers. They entreated us to fully oversee the project and finish it as quickly as we could because they were closing on the sale of their previous home. We completed the major renovation of 4,700 square feet in six months, accommodating the clients’ wishes. The clients now refer to this project as a “house rescue.”
We gutted and updated all five bathrooms in the house. We reconfigured the powder room on the main floor to fit next to the new mudroom. In the primary bathroom, we enlarged the shower and removed the old tub to create a hall closet to house a stacked washer/dryer.
For the second-floor hall bath, we closed off one door that opened to a bedroom but kept the entry door to the hall. This bath was to be shared by three kids. We didn’t have quite enough space for a double sink vanity, so we selected a long trough-like sink and installed two faucets so two kids can use it at the same time.
The original attic bathroom had low ceilings and was not comfortable to use. We enlarged it into the adjacent sitting room and added a large shower. We replaced the window that is now in the shower and used obscure glass for privacy. The floor tile and marble vanity top match the style of the original house.
