Over the coming weeks and months, you’ll be seeing a series of blog posts about an exciting project we started at the beginning of July. This home, built in the early 1900s just north of The University of Texas campus, is owned by a wonderful couple that currently has two young boys with two more on the way. The owners and their architect have an incredible appreciation for the charm and character of their home, and we are going to do our best to blend the old and the new with as much respect and care as possible. Although we have a number of great projects underway, we’ll be focusing our blog on this project because it has so many interesting elements and challenges all rolled into one. A little background:
* The existing home was built in the early 20th century and is approx. 1200 sf.
* The existing structure, as with many homes built in this era, has some problems that must be addressed – rot due to water and termites, drainage issues, foundation/pier issues, and plenty of lead paint
* We’ll be adding 1200 sf to this property, effectively doubling the size of the home. But before we can do that, we must demo an existing garage apartment structure (built in the 1970s and not part of the original home), shore up the existing home (before we attached the new), deal with the lead paint (in the face of new EPA regulations)
* We’ll be installing several very “green” products – some we are very familiar with, some which we’ll be using for the first time
* The exciting part of this project is going to be the blending of new and old – the existing home is charming and very period authentic, and we’ll be attempting to make the new space consistent with that by using old #117 pine siding in lieu of the ever popular Hardi-siding, reclaimed hardwood floors, wood windows from Andersen, bead board, open rafter tail framing, and many other touches that we hope will make the new space blend with the original
* As with all renovation projects, there is a daily battle between price, schedule, wants, needs, and limitations. There are trade offs that must be considered and tough decisions must be made.
Our hope in documenting this journey is that anyone considering taking on a project of this scope and complexity can look behind the scenes, see what really happens, and hopefully learn from it