Originally a Carriage House the building is set just feet off the adjacent roadway. To create privacy and preserve the interesting second floor roofline the decision was made to build a “flipped plan” where the kitchen, living, and dining areas are on the second floor and the sleeping and bathing quarters are located on the first floor. This allowed the second floor to remain open from floor to ceiling (except for the addition of a small powder room). On the lower level the area immediately adjacent to the roadway was designed to be a hall and stair enabling the bedrooms and bathrooms to be kept to the rear of the home for more privacy. On the exterior original trim details were replicated in-kind and original public-facing doors were recreated but made non operable in lieu of more human scale doors elsewhere on the building. Rounded edges, textured plaster finishes and soft curves including a custom site-built stair case were chosen with the objective of creating a soft, warm and minimal feel.
Although the building had fared well in its prior 100-years of life, things like the lack of a footing and framing members set directly on the ground were starting to take a toll. Early on the decision to add a full basement under the structure which originally had a simple dirt floor, was made. To accomplish this, the building was supported and lifted off the ground high enough that machinery could drive in and out to excavate for footings and a full finished basement. Once the foundations walls were poured the building was set back down and rotted portions reframed. A second wall was framed inside the building to create more room for insulation and service cavities for the various utilities that would have otherwise compromised the balloon and timber framed exterior walls. Since the second-floor joists in the original were undersized for today’s code the floor was reframed and lowered 16” taking away some space from the already-generous first floor celling height and adding it to the crucial areas at the perimeter of the second floor where the roofline is at its lowest.
Exterior clapboard matching the original is installed over purlins on top of a continuous blanket of mineral wool insulation providing air sealing and an even greater R-value.