Remodeling & Additions Portfolio

• Cornerstone Award: 2004 Gold Award for Remodeling — Whole House

When the clients bought this house on a small lakefront lot, they approached us with hopes to add a second floor, finish off space over an existing garage and expand underneath the house to create as much living space as possible to accommodate a family of five with additional quarters for visiting guests.

The resulting whole-house remodeling project converted a 1,300 square foot ranch style house into a home with 4,600 square feet of living space, most of which was created with minimal expansion of the footprint. The new plan features 4 additional bedrooms, three new bathrooms, added decks, a new covered porch — a fieldstone fireplace, larger living room, landscaping and very happy customers: "We are thrilled to see the house emerge so wonderfully and truly appreciate all of your efforts. We left excited and confident that the house will exceed our expectations and will be a gathering place for family and friends — Thanks so much" - Debbie and Bob

These friends of former clients purchased a classic and historic colonial on the Main Street of New London. The wife is a dedicated pianist and has a magnificent glossy black grand piano, but there wasn't a room that they could dedicate to being a music room much less with favorable acoustics. They hired our design/build firm to find a solution. In the process, they got much, much more than they bargained for.

We developed a concept that centered on a conservatory addition with faceted walls and a tray ceiling for improved acoustics for the piano. The room opens off the dining room and the adjoining space became a sitting room opening off the kitchen. All of the spaces are connected visually by large cased openings.

The big bonus came when we determined that we could turn the existing basement level into a walkout by excavating into the grade that gently sloped away from the house. That dramatically changed the entire concept. We removed sixteen feet of foundation wall and build a huge recreation room in a portion of the existing basement area along with a full bathroom. The new area became a den for the husband with a wide screen television and surround sound system. The French doors lead directly onto the patio with the pool beyond. We were able to match the cut stone of the existing stonewalls and veneered the lower level exterior walls and constructed new retaining walls.

• Cornerstone Award: 2004 Silver Award for Residential Remodeling

The last thing that this couple needed was more room, but the wife could not stand to have empty space and just had to finish off the attic space over the garage!

The final design included a gracious bathroom with a roomy shower, a walk-in closet and a large, sunny room. We added a full gable dormer to the backside of the attic to add headroom and to allow a curved balcony to be constructed overlooking the owner's waterfalls, fishpond and gardens.

The new room could serve a number of functions, as a second master bedroom, a lovely office, a "mother-in-law" suite, but the couple decided to create a secluded den. The "Hideaway" has distressed cottage-style built-ins with a nine-foot long cushioned window seat and a cabinet that conceals a wide-screen TV and surround-sound system. The ceiling in particular uses a "wash" mixture of paint, water and glazing.

The pivotal design feature that the wife wanted is the custom "cathedral" window in the existing gable end. As you enter the new "Hideaway", the room opens up before you as you pass through the narrow hallway with an eight-foot high ceiling and on into the main room with it's ten foot ceilings and the window wall.

• Cornerstone Award: 2007 Silver Award for Residential Remodeling

The existing lake front home had been built by a young couple from New York about sixteen years ago — on a shoestring budget. Now they were ready to transform the vinyl-sided basic 1½ story cape into the vacation home of their dreams.

The initial design avoided the expense of totally gutting the interior by continuing to use most of the major spaces as is. The back bedroom was turned into the new foyer and the existing bathroom was totally changed. The three story addition provided for a new family room in the walk-out level, a new timber framed great room on the main floor and two bedrooms and a new bathroom on the second floor. Wrap-around porches on the front and side welcome visitors and draw them into the new foyer. The new lakeside decks and screen porch expand the living into the outdoors during the summer months.

Half-way through the project, the owners decided that an attached garage with additional storage above would be wonderful! Since it had not been considered in the original planning and design, it had to incorporated into the now partially renovated home. The new garage is connected with an extension of the covered porch and looks like it was in the plans from the beginning.

• Cornerstone Award: 2005 Gold Award for Residential Remodeling
• Featured in the September 2005 issue of Timber Home Illustrated.

These folks from Boston fell in love with Lake Sunapee and searched for several years for the Adirondack lake house of their dreams. They never found it. Instead they found the perfect lakefront lot, but it had a yellow colonial with white trim. They came to our design/build firm and asked what we could do to make the house look and feel more like their dream Adirondack lodge and, oh by the way, build a guest suite over the garage!

The approach that we took to transform the main house included all new shingle siding, a new standing seam metal roof, extensive redesign and replacement of the lakeside windows and doors, and a new color scheme.

The new addition not only includes a garage and gracious guest suite, but a huge billiards room as well. The billiards room features huge double-hung windows facing Lake Sunapee interspersed with stone columns and a radiantly-heated thick stone slab floor. We were able to include a bar area, half bath, new laundry and storage room, larger dining room and a new secondary foyer with a stairway to the guest suite.

The guest suite's vaulted ceilings are supported with a complicated system of timber framing and hidden metal reinforcement. The hipped roof is sheathed with a combination of structural insulated panels and conventional rafters. A cupola lets light flow into the sitting area and the bathroom is surfaced with tumbled marble.

The clients are thrilled with their "new" Adirondack-inspired lake house. It took them much longer than they expected to realize their dream, but as they relaxed on their deck and watched another spectacular sunset across the lake, they agreed that it was worth it.

The owners of this property on Sunapee Lake in Newbury wanted to convert their vacation shingle-style cottage into their permanent home. Like many cottages on the lake, the house grew and was renovated numerous times over the years. Some portions of the house were structurally inadequate as were the insulation, heating, water, mechanical and electrical systems and the bathrooms all needed upgrading.

We started by repairing the basic structure of the existing house. Walls, unsupported by foundations, were temporarily supported and new concrete walls constructed. New framing replaced rotten material. Undersized framing was reinforced. Sprayed foam insulation was added in all exposed framing. All systems were upgraded and bath fixtures replaced.

Given the proximity of the house to the lake and zoning concerns, the addition was limited to an expansion away from the lake. Space for a new covered entry porch and family room were added to the first floor. The porch is large enough to greet large groups and has enough space to act as an outdoor gathering area. A door leads from the porch into what was a small bedroom, but has now become the main entry. A new door opening leads into the existing living room. A pocket door was installed and opens the living room into the new family room. The family room is attached to an existing covered porch. We extended the existing covered porch roof and wrapped it around the addition.

• Cornerstone Award: 2006 Silver Award for Residential Remodeling

Small, dark rooms!! That's what we found we first toured this owner's home. It was a typical pseudo "colonial" with lots of small spaces and the requisite double hung windows arranged symmetrically on the exterior regardless of the interior room configuration. The homeowners wanted a larger, sun-filled living room and a real guest suite.

We designed a very simple addition that would give them everything that they wanted within their budget. The main floor is a large, sunny family room opening onto a deck and with a glassed-in sun room off one side. The windows and deck take full advantage of the surrounding landscape. On the second floor, we found room for a laundry room which brought the washer and dryer up from the basement. A large guest room looks out over the meadow and pond, and has a large private bathroom featuring an old-fashioned claw foot tub and wainscoting. Even the new basement will be utilized as a workshop. The hickory floors, stained pine trim work and the new woodstove all add to the ambiance that the owner now enjoy so much.

• Cornerstone Award: 2007 Gold Award for Residential Remodeling

The owners purchased a property with the intention to build a new timber frame guesthouse. On the site was an existing boathouse built in the early 1900s. However, the exterior details of the new guesthouse were quite different than the boathouse. The owners wanted the style of the boathouse to relate closely to the new guesthouse so we added large arched forms, tapered corner columns, exposed gable end trusses, a large water table, and mahogany deck rails. All the windows and doors were replaced and the overhead door for the boat slip was replaced with a new curved-top door.

To control runoff and erosion, the landscaping included extensive stone retaining walls, stairs, and lighted walkways. Different paths connect the boathouse to the guesthouse and parking.