Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Final Photos of Modern Farmhouse After a Fire

New Front of House

Front- BEFORE
Back- BEFORE
Move in day has come to the family whose house burned down! It's been rebuilt in a new bigger, better way with modern air sealing and HVAC systems, upscale finishes, and reorganized spaces with a focus on open rooms that connect to the outdoors, while also offering private spaces to each resident of the extended family living here. This 'Modern Farmhouse' used to be a Cape Cod style home with a cramped kitchen, awkward dated sunken family room, and small dark bedrooms, without much connection to the beautiful mountain views and sunlight available on the site.
New Back of House
When the home burnt, the foundation was the only piece we could re-use and the grading around the house- with it's back basement walk-out door- remained as is for our new design. Staying atop that footprint (while adding a mud room and garage to the side of it) set the design constraints, but when thinking about rebuilding, we made bold changes to the building massing, roof shape, floor plan, windows, and feel/style of the home to better fit the dynamic family who lives there. We omitted the back sun room and wrap around porch, increased the size of the back deck, and added a traditional front porch entry.

Living Room - Wet Bar near Glass Doors to Deck
Living Room - toward front and Foyer, Hall to Bedrooms
The new home is light-filled and spacious with a chef's kitchen connected through a brick archway to a great room with a fireplace, wet bar, and enormous deck. All those windows and glass doors made the interior so bright and open that the old "sun porch" room you see in the "BEFORE" photo didn't need to be recreated in our new design. All the public spaces have glazing toward the south/back/mountain view and the deck. The new bedrooms have full-height or vaulted ceilings with glass doors to individual balconies and their own custom bathrooms. The building envelope is super tight and well insulated and the new HVAC system is super high efficiency. The materials are classy inside and out - and the site work, when complete, will boast a circular drop-off driveway at the front porch and two-story foyer front entry, and a patio with a hot tub off the back. (The spa tub was existing, and remained untouched by the fire and the water damage after the fire.)

Kitchen - toward front

Kitchen - toward Dining/Back & connection to Deck and Living Room

Mud Room - Cubbies by Garage Entry
Dutch Door from Kitchen to Mud Room
and a Pet Door too



Walk-in Pantry in Kitchen


Darker colors used in Upstairs Study
Laundry Room
Interesting and unique custom details abound here to make you smile. We have built-in cushioned benches in the eating nook and the mud room entry. We have cubicles for organizing in the mudroom, dressing room, and pantry. There is ship lap wainscoting in the bathroom and the mud room and custom live-edge wood used as a sink base and as the fireplace mantel shelf. Barn wood creates a cozy plank ceiling in the master bedroom. Fun flooring appears in the Dressing Room and the Laundry Room. And high transom windows let in lots of light. The tile floors have warming mats to prevent cold feet, and while most of the interior door and window trim is painted white, the Study received a stained wood finish instead. Some of the smaller, private rooms have special wall colors, but the main public spaces remain neutral with their wall color. The interior doors and door/window trim is modeled after a traditional Craftsman design and has oil rubbed bronze hardware. While each room has its own unique features, theseconsistent details like doors, trim, and wood flooring bring continuity to the house as a whole.

Two Story Foyer Entry

Custom Hall Bathroom


Restaurant-style Dramatic Powder Room
Happy Dressing Room

Shoe Cubbies in Dressing Room

Master Bedroom w/ Barn Wood on Vaulted Ceiling & Lots of Light


Pet Doors allow the cat to leave the bedroom
This project was a joy to work on. I am often helping people improve their housing by making it work better for them and be more beautiful and efficient, but in this case, it was more than that. These client's took lemons and made lemonade, to use an inadequate phrase for the circumstances. The house they had moved into only months before was gone, along with all their belongings, and they always had smiles when I met with them. They  deliberately choose awesome interior finishes everywhere- from the lighting, to the fireplace design, to the plumbing fixtures and tile, to the kitchen appliances. They had a great contractor who could implement the ideas shown from a photo. And now they have a house that is truly personal to them and they are so happy to be living in it together.

Click here to read the previous posts about this project:

http://cwb-architect.blogspot.com/2018/12/modern-farmhouse-after-fire-finishes.html

https://cwb-architect.blogspot.com/2018/10/modern-farmhouse-mechanicals-roofing.html

https://cwb-architect.blogspot.com/2018/08/new-house-after-fire-framing.html

https://cwb-architect.blogspot.com/2018/07/rebuilding-modern-farmhouse-after-fire.html

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