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Split to modern farmhouse

Split to Modern Famhouse


Anytime you add a new floor to a split-level home you pass at your own risk.  You can recall encountering others where the roof line has not been held in check, and you notice that something is just not right. They can be tall and imposing as if proportion had left town with no forwarding address.

Split-level homes are a challenging archetype to work with no doubt, but that’s half the fun.  Inspired by another MHD project while responding to homeowner’s unique priorities, we have taken this house down to the first-floor framing and utilized the existing path of the stairs for navigating old and new spaces as well as using it to bring the natural light into the three levels of the home.

The rebuilt first floor now has liberating nine-foot ceilings, and the new second floor is dormered and vaulted to keep the appearance of the house low on the exterior but airy and interesting on the interior. The asymmetrical grouping of dormers and gables keeps the roofline and its mojo grounded, while new projecting bays help quell the presence of the tell-tale split-level cantilever at the first floor. The house’s massing is minimized by the house’s sitting.  Half buried into a hill, our home maintains a quiet, but proud presence on this established street.

The new ceiling heights provide much relief, especially the soaring great room ceiling at request of the previously stifled and cramped homeowners.  The extra ceiling height in the main living space will make all the difference in day to day living.  Taller ceilings and cathedral ceilings enable generous window sizes and quantities to let more natural light flood in.  When opportunity arises, let it fly.

 


Split to Modern Farmhouse

A New England House Sitting

A New England House Sitting.

Sometimes you need to bring the mountain to Muhammad.  With a picture-perfect, farmland site we had to make the grade for more than just aesthetics to get this new home to sit at its best.  Blessed with a near-by pond, but cursed with a high-water table, a workable septic system and dry basement underscored the necessary requirements. The house sits properly now watching over its domain. It’s a modern farmhouse and it’s hyper-sensitive to precedent. It’s wearing its dress white clapboard siding with companion black sash windows, and is neatly framed by more than a couple sugar maple trees.  Existing stone walls frame the front and rear to complete the scene.  

The new raised perch for this home allows for a meandering driveway. It’s neither a stroll nor hike, but a pronounced walk to the street. Guest should prepare for a commitment to enter here, but the wide farmer’s porch with warm wood V-grooved ceiling will surely bring comfort, , so take a seat in the swing on this expansive front porch to witness the calm.

A cluster of utility spaces separates the living areas from the garage. For the homeowners, it’s refreshing to off-load baggage before being lifted.  The changing seasons are amplified in this home.  Generously tall, two over two double hung windows surround the open first floor and create a gallery of outdoor portraits.  Views to the landscape are everywhere and with the aforementioned distance to the street privacy is met. The center “L-shaped’ staircase sequesters the foyer and provides just the right interruption of space to create nooks of privacy around it. The stair also provide access to the upper bedrooms and lower level recreation spaces.

To further engage the site the procession to the rear outdoor spaces is taken in stages. Two successive decks ease the path down ward. The park-like backyard is relatively flat and well defined by the surrounding woods while the home’s solar orientation broadcasts sparkling light off the pond to let you know just where you are and the time of the day.


Ocean View Home

This classic shingle style home with gambrel roof sits perfectly on hill overlooking beach and marshes of Cape Cod Bay.

Open interior plan has many views to ocean horizon including the second floor loft space off of generous bedroom suites.

Outdoor stone patio creates living space with easy access from living spaces and first floor master bedroom/

Cape Cod Contrivance

A Cape Cod Contrivance 

No other architect has adopted an architype and made it his own like Royal Barry Wills.  Founded in 1925, Royal Barry Wills Associates took over the beloved Cape Cod style home and weaved it into a 20th century residential icon.

This recently completed MHD residential project is a blend of the architecture inspired by Wills and also pays homage to the site’s previous Greek Revival style home.  My clients were attracted to the simplicity of the Cape Cod house, but wanted a more modern plan that fit their lifestyle.  The end result is a cape cod style home that is dedicated to bright spaces, lasting curb appeal, and exploitation of the unique site.

All of the interior spaces are organized on a main spine of the tryptic: the Cape Cod box, the connecting breezeway and the triple garage. Set inside the tight buildable area next to wetlands, it stands proud to the street in a gentle bend while more intimate spaces: master bedroom, family room and sunroom spoke off the main spine into the more private backyard.  These protrusions allow light, breeze and views to surround each room on three sides.  Notwithstanding its modern plan and its dual personality, the face of this home is that of traditional American residential architecture.  

Welcome home.


Craftsman Home Grows Up

Craftsman Home Grows Up. 

With a growing family, my clients find themselves at the end of a dead-end road that backs up just shy of a school yard. Check the box for excellent privacy and safety.  The lot, although raised above the street level, has a perfect rectangular and flat backyard that could most likely qualify as any United States Croquet Association sanctioned court.  With a need for bedrooms and a play space, should we go up, out, or both with an addition design?  With setbacks and a myriad of other zoning regulations in the mix, we decided to go up and then up again, to save the coveted outdoor space.

The existing home was a single floor ranch with just enough craftsman charm to cause worry about blowing it, but we were confident we could make something work functionally and stylistically.  On a neighborhood walk my clients discovered their dream home design look just a few blocks away. It was a new, “tear down,” craftsman style home featuring a gambrel style roof.  Disguising height is a feature that gambrel roofs (or Dutch colonial homes) do masterfully.  With this model in mind, we went to work designing their “new” home.

With the new gambrel roof design, the second floor was an easy fit up for bedrooms including a true master suite, while the upper steeper pitched gambrel roof area allowed for a spacious playroom on a third floor. Dormers front and back brought in light and added enough headroom for real usable play space there.  Two new sets of stairs would stack comfortably upon the existing stair to the basement.  Although the ridgeline was much higher than the existing roof ridge, the soffits of the new home were just a bit higher than the existing keeping it from appearing out of scale. Several neighboring homes are also rendered in the Dutch colonial style helping our dream home fit right in.  With generous windows on the rear facing wall, we see clearly out over our preserved flat green space, and from that opposing view we appreciate our new home and its authentic lines.


How to Cottage in the Twenty First Century

How To Cottage in the Twenty First Century

The cottage architype has thrived here in the United states throughout our history.  The term cottage has been used to describe everything from rural worker shacks and water side vacation homes to the guilded mansions of Newport’s elite on Bellevue Avenue.  It is typically a one-story building though, with living spaces on the first floor and sleeping rooms tucked up into the low-slung roof above.  Despite its usual low-profile it has been crafted in many revival styles with a range of human friendly details that are inspiring and attractive.  But can it support a modern lifestyle and retain its charm?

The magic in modern cottaging is to manage and encourage its duality. A successful cottage should be small, yet big, and low, yet proud. My clients’ new home sits comfortably on their long diamond shaped lot.  The asymmetric footprint seems organic, yet it’s quite formal.  The garage starts parallel with the lot line but the bend in plan allows the nested gables of the main entry to sit subtly yet proudly on the lot’s centerline.  It runs from the cool northeast to the toasty southwestern exposure, and that’s the perfect orientation for the backyard feature: not a picturesque pond or formal garden, but an in-ground pool.  They are self-proclaimed pool people, and by design the homes’ layout pulls you right in.

The front elevation’s three gables are simple shapes but in concert they shout prominently.  A modest shed dormer peeks out of the roof to let you know you being watched, but you keep walking toward it anyway because you know you’re welcome.  The architecture is rural, but well dressed.  The siding and trim details are a combination of Monticello meets American Gothic.  Powdered wigs and pitchforks are welcome, but not encouraged. 

The first floor is uber open.   The stairs to the upstairs bedrooms has been pushed off center and tucked behind the focal point fireplace.  If you tire of the fire, there’s abundant glass to the rear of the home that draws you past the well fitted kitchen to expose you to the outdoors.  The Lanai suspends you in limbo, somewhere between house and pool, and it is very okay to float there for a while and enjoy the outdoor fireplace or the shade of the wide roof above.

Sooner than later though you’ll feel the pull of the pool. The water’s reflection of the sky is the perfect metaphor for heaven.  So, dive in and enjoy the positive ions, but check out all of the details. Perhaps the devil is there somewhere too?




Cape Cod times

Cape Cod Times: Reminiscing Forward

Your cell phone is looking forward to this weekend.  Don’t forget to bring it, but pack heavy.  Upstairs in the bedroom is a dresser that fits under the kneewall at the dormer.  Tuck your phone between the heavy clothes you brought “just in case” and stow it away until Sunday or whatever day you see fit.  Let’s go back in time. Let’s relax.  Vacations are all about creating, if not reliving, great memories.

Your grandparents would have loved you to love this home.  After daylight hours filled with beaching, boating and/or biking, all will convene for refreshments and dinner before splintering into night time retreats: sitting by the fire, playing cards, or revealing family secrets in the screened porch.  The cleared and widened backyard is private and good for stargazing to experience that feeling of being infinitesimally small, yet surprisingly superior all at the same time.

Don’t be fooled by the premise.  This home is modern.  Its form is inspired by the rich architectural history of Old Kings Highway (Route 6A), but the guts are simple.  Its an open plan organized for the fluidity of a happy stay.  Easy transitions from privacy to public spaces and back were paramount in the design process.

Showing up with groceries or the perfect antique lamp for the upstairs hallway? You’re probably the homeowner, so pull in the garage, grab you stuff and after a few risers you’re on the first floor passing by the mudroom and pantry closet before arriving at the kitchen island.  Toss you bag into the primary suite as you go by.  Guests will be greeted informally on the covered porch at the front door.  A gangway-inspired stairway escorts them to their staterooms on a spacious and comfort-ridden second level.  

Want to be entertained? A glass of wine awaits you at the large kitchen island.  The cooks are fun to watch, but you’ll eventually be drawn away by the fireplace and that quirky porthole window above it.  Yes, it is lighted.

Were you at the beach? Are you covered in sand with a mild sunburn?  No problem.   Go around the side and use one of the dual outdoor rinse stations before heading to the screened room.  A beverage will probably be handed to you through the kitchen window area. These indoors are a very close second place to that beach down the street.   Perhaps you should stay out of the sun for a while anyway.  

Cheers.


Seasdie escape

Master(ful) Plan

For that perfect tailored fit in any new home bring patience, time, and good planning skills to set the table.  It began as an underwhelming 1970’s saltbox, but this Cape Cod home has been transformed into a comfortable vacation and a soon to be retirement home.  It is sure to bring guests and family back for more time and again thanks to solid planning and attention to detail by my clients.

Built over three phases, the first phase included a modest but effective front bay and covered porch addition that brought the home to life at street side. The simple acts of entering and leaving were greatly improved, and so has pride of place.  That addition and a new farmhouse kitchen made the home more enjoyable while the wheels churned in planning the next phases.

Phase two was all about spoiling the homeowners with a well outfitted primary suite that was carefully orchestrated like a good set design for a theater.  What scenes unfold each day and how do the actors flow about in not-so dramatic fashion? Bed, bath, closet and laundry areas are all destinations in every daily acts.  Privacy, proximity, and purpose reign, and both morning and evening routines have never been so enjoyable.

The final phase was a two-car garage with a generous garden shed and storage areas.  Seated above are two spacious bedrooms with a bathroom that provides privacy and comfort to guests.   The golden rule to managing guests: If your guests don’t feel comfortable, you probably will not relax either. The amenities along with the separation of spaces build that confidence of successful visits.

At the center of all of these new and renovated spaces are the outdoor living areas created.  It is the focal point and the finish line for all who visit and reside.  The screened porch and the open deck are easy extensions of the interior spaces, while just a few stepdown, a patio is framed by an expansive lawn and colorful plantings.  I would encourage all to explore for few minutes before finding your spot.  They each have splendid and natural vantage points in this relaxing home by the sea.


Seaside Escape

Farmhouse in Blue

Farmhouse in Blue 

This newly finished home stands balanced, but not symmetrical.  It’s not your mom’s center entrance colonial, but it does sit proud to the street with its dual gables. The double hung 2 over 2 windows are in proportion to the classical tall rectangle of the human body.  Areas of vertical board and batten siding mimic the framing hidden beneath.  Fir post and beam structures at the relaxed front porch and rear outdoor room are the traditionalist’s best answer at the modernists mantra that form follows function.  Too blue (not white) for the typical modern farm house genre, the story unfolds in the interior. 

It's a few beats north of the transitional style with its modern sensibilities. Glass railings, open perched foyer, and wood grained cabinetry are seriously sleek with no apologies.  Here the horizontal overtakes the vertical. The light flooding western facing u-shaped stair will float you up toward the second floor.  Varying ceilings height grace this second floor while a very deep basement levels gets the most out of the somewhat modest footprint.  Both are design responses to the restrictive local zoning bylaws that often try men’s souls, if not their confidence in geometry.

This project was a true family effort.   Through a fun collaboration there is something for everyone in this home.  This construction timeline suffered with pandemic related supply chain issues, but the obstacles were overcome with both patience and extra effort.  It’s good to be home!


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THOUGHTFUL DESIGN & TRANSFORMATIVE RESULTS

Passionate. Professional. Timely. Creative. We could go on about Michael Hally. We completed an entire house renovation/addition and with simply just listening to our wishes and needs, he created and transformed what was a house with a roof into a home.

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