Historical remodel, first floor addition with an entry, kitchen, and porch
Built in 1900 this Victorian has large rooms in every location except for the kitchen. The owner had gone through painstaking extents to keep the initial integrity and detail of the home intact as they had endeavored into several internal remodeling projects on their own. The existing addition at the back of the house was built to provide access to the basement from the inside. When the home was originally constructed, the basement access was from the outside and the back door entrance was at the opposite side of the house with a small back porch.
Before
Sometime in its existence the kitchen was remodeled, from the looks of things it was in the 50’s. All of the Victorian trim was removed and replaced with ranch style trim, the doors were flush, hollow core, Oak, and the cabinets were blonde Oak with bright chrome hardware. These elements drove our purist homeowner crazy. Realizing that a remodel of the space would be expensive and beyond their capabilities to accomplish on their own in a timely fashion, they waited patiently, saved for the project, and looked for their remodeler.
The scope was clear, tear down the existing addition, create a new entrance with a mudroom, add closet space with a warming bench in the new back hallway, double the kitchen space with an expanded eating area that leads to a liberal back porch, and gut remodel an existing 1st floor bathroom. The owner specified a return to all of the original elements of the existing trim, door styles, flooring, and to incorporate appropriate cabinetry into the project.
After
The new addition was built with a crawl space and adds approximately 400 square feet to the house that includes the porch. The exterior is clad in fiber cement siding, with cedar shake look vinyl on the gable, all of the exterior trim details of the original structure are incorporated into the addition. On the inside, the entire floor of the existing kitchen area had to be removed to the joists below. New joists were added to the existing to accommodate a floor that was so uneven that it dropped 3 inches in two different directions over the span of the old kitchen area. Extensive framing and engineering was employed to ensure that the ceiling between the old and the new spaces were flush.
Although it was the desire of the owner to remove all of the existing 8″ Masonite siding that was applied to the house, the budget would not allow for it. The new addition was sided with 4″ exposure, fiber cement siding, as was the east elevation up to the chimney. The remainder of the house will be resided in the future.
The new kitchen has a liberal dining area with doors leading directly to the porch, a breakfast bar, planning desk, a huge pantry cabinet, new semi-custom Cherry cabinetry with under cabinet lighting, base to wall cabinet ceramic tile back splash, and Maple flooring through out. Closet space, a ceramic tile foyer floor, Maple wood steps, and a warming bench were added to the new back entry.
