This building is what is called and Accessory Structure. It likely dates to the same time the home was built, around 1900, and over these many decades it has been used as a rough, unfinished "garage" type storage space- most recently for bikes, garden supplies, skis, and other recreational equipment. It is far from the house, down a steep hill, and right on the street edge in a village. My clients wanted to take advantage of this cool building and be able to use it for more than just rough storage.
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| Street side view remains unchanged, but with re-built doors |
At my suggestion we are going to keep it simple by not trying to add plumbing. The site size and steepness, along with the existing septic system size and location, just made that too difficult or impossible. So without a bathroom, this will not be a "guesthouse", but rather a "playhouse". We envision it having a ping pong table, and some comfy chairs and tables for game playing, along with a desk area for quiet remote-work or school space. New roofing and rebuilt curved top carriage house doors (and removing all those vines and wires) will be the main changes to the exterior. It is inside where most of the new work will happen.
Above is an animation fly-around with the roof removed so you can see the layout for the interior. I propose building a small upper level, so we can connect to the house and yard. This will take the focus- and the access- away from being only on the street side of the structure, thereby making the space more private. We can do this by excavating away some of the ground and creating a low patio behind the structure. Once a few feet of the stone back wall is unearthed, glass doors can be installed where currently there are windows, the family will have a way to easily step into this new space from a path in the yard behind the house.
Currently the stone on the back/yard side is buried into the ground
The new design proposes digging out to expose a few more feet of the back of the building to allow for doors facing the house. This makes the playhouse connected to the yard and the home, without having the walk into the street.
