Woodley Park Timeless Traditional

What Made This Project Hard

• The existing basement was too shallow to finish as real living space, so the plan called for underpinning, extending the existing brick, block foundation walls, and footings deeper into the ground to gain enough ceiling height for a proper wine cellar, bathroom, and mudroom below grade.
• Once the foundation work was underway, the team also found that the existing brick wall on one side of the porch addition was significantly out of level, more than old brick typically settles, which meant demolishing and rebuilding that section rather than building on top of it.

How We Solved It

• Design started under a separate design agreement more than a year before construction began, with schematic options revised over several rounds as the
• homeowners refined which spaces they wanted: a mudroom and TV room from the enclosed porches, a wine cellar and bath in the basement, and a new bathroom on the second floor. That runway let the scope settle before a fixed construction contract was signed.
• A structural engineer detailed exactly which sections of the existing brick and block foundation needed underpinning. Construction followed in sequence: existing porches and their foundations were demolished; new footings were poured and tied into the newly underpinned walls; the new open porch, covered areaway, and basement spaces were framed and finished; and the second-floor bathroom was added.