Case Studies

Award Winning Historical Renovation

Winner National Association of the Remodeling Industry of Eastern Mass. 2003 Award for Historical Renovation (NARI)

Project background:

This beautiful early American style, late 1800s, home in Wayland was transformed with an extensive update to the interior and exterior. The customer’s goal, in addition to updating the structure, was to tie together the three main sections of the home, creating the appearance of one cohesive unit while maintaining the character of the house.

Our design included a covered farm style porch which dramatically changed the front façade and roof line, while maintaining the period style and providing a consistent look across the face of the home. The new roof line is blended with the existing roof and building structure as though it had been conceived by the home’s original builder. The customer is extremely happy with the results and tell us that people who pass by regularly remark that the house looks beautiful.

The arbor/pergola structure that follows the back wall line is another example of a design element that achieved the goal of cohesion and enhancement.

The customer chose to use Radiant heat floors in two rooms which allowed us to maximize floor space and avoid any compromises on the character of the space.

Challenges and Solutions:

The greatest challenge in working with a house like this was to maintain the culture of the house and enhance its natural beauty with period design. This post and beam home with hewn timbers mortis and tenon joints, created some challenges in matching up ceilings and floors. The actual floor framing was only 7 inches thick leaving little room for recessed lighting. In the existing building the ceilings were quite low.

Tying in the new porch to the main house with its low ceilings and thin floor structures created a challenge. We had to disassemble a Marvin door cut off the bottom and reassemble it (including the weather stripping) to work with the varying ceiling heights and floor thickness of the older structure.

Due to the age of the house, we encountered (and replaced) areas of rot at various phases of the project, these were easily overcome, routine in working with an older home.