“In the 1950s, when this house was built, all the bedrooms were grouped together,” points out Foy. “With the new plan, the master is on the opposite side of the house and has its own master bath.”
Rocha designed an addition to accommodate the new larger master suite and also stole space from an oddly located den. “The house had two family rooms right next to each other,” Foy notes. “It originally had a detached garage and the space resulted when they attached that garage to the house.”
Along with creating the new master suite and updating the kitchen and existing bathrooms, Rocha addressed a number of other design flaws. He created a proper entry and foyer, brought the laundry room in from the garage, added a powder room, and created an 11’ x 20’ covered outdoor living space, accessible from the house and yard.
“We maintained the general flow of the house while improving those areas,” Rocha says. “And the interesting part is that we were able to make the existing parlor a space that could flex as a formal dining room or simply remain a parlor.” The team included a family dining room off the kitchen, which they think is more likely to be used by busy homeowners than a formal dining room.
Rocha raised the ceiling height to 9’4” in the new addition, which includes the kitchen, grand room, and master bedroom. “We didn’t want too much of a discrepancy with the 8’ ceilings in the rest of the house,” Rocha explains. “We only cut out the center rear of the house to make it taller.”
All told, the team added about 600 square feet of space (approximately 125 lineal feet of foundation), but the livability of the house was imminently improved.
Rocha kept the unique aspects of the house intact. “We tried to keep the costs down and also keep the architectural character of the house,” Rocha says. “We kept the corner windows in the bedrooms and living room and maintained the chimney placement and location and the way the windows flank it.”
High-Performance Dream
While this house nails the green finishes and floor plan flow, it is also energy efficient, which is important to today’s remodeling clients, who expect an energy savings payback. The house’s initial HERS rating was 128, with the goal to get it to under 50.
05.2011
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