This cozy property was a diamond in the rough in need of some serious polishing.
A quiet dead end street in the hills of Newton, MA was home to an early 1900’s modest cape style home with a finished dormered Attic on a compact lot that had been added to and remodeled several times over the span of it’s life to better accommodate the lifestyles and needs of the former owners. When the current homeowners saw this house, they realized that this cozy property was a diamond in the rough, and had their eyes set on what could be with a bit of polishing.
Once work began to transform the house layout from it’s former state to the more functional and aesthetically consistent family home, it was apparent that due to the existing state of conditions this dramatic change would not be possible without taking the extreme measure of tearing down most of the house and starting over. One of the greatest benefits of the need to proceed in this manner is that the homeowners had much more flexibility regarding how the spaces would be arranged to best suit their family’s needs and wants. The biggest disadvantage, lack of space within the House and property setbacks, would be an extremely difficult challenge to overcome, but would come with with significant benefits worth all the time and effort spent.
Without the ability to add to the foundation footprint due to code restrictions, relocating the Bathroom and moving the Stairway from the center of the House to the unused former Screened Porch helped to facilitate the integration of an open concept Kitchen, Dining Room and Living Area which the impression of a larger space, while introducing a better flow throughout the First Floor areas. The new Stairway location also provided more convenient passage into the Basement and allowed more square footage to be finished when the full Second Floor was added to the House.