Before and After: A house gets a facelift

peek of my new window seat

I wanted to share with you our summer project now that I have downloaded about 3 months worth of photos from my digital camera.  We knew we needed a portico for our "flat-faced" house after the never ending winter of last year.  The relentless snow and ice made entering our home a mission impossible particularly on our front porch.  The bricks were slick and the icicles threatened any and all who dared to enter.  We needed to tackle this problem before another winter was upon us. It also gave us an excuse to give our house a little face-lift with some much needed architecture.

A portion of the house before

This is the best "before" picture I could come up with.  Half the house is out of view on the left but you get the idea. It is a rambling mid-century multi-level with beautiful gardens in the back and a really lovely layout inside.  The outside did not match the inside and this was the time to remedy that.  We worked with our friend, Nile Ziemba, of Northriver Builders  to develop a vision for the front of the house.  He was able to pull together the three separate parts of our house and make them flow as one piece ( like they did inside our home). Of course our project grew from just a portico to "let's do the front of the house over" but that is what happens when you work with a design builder who has some pretty neat ideas.  

our house after

Now you can see that the house flows from one end to another.  He gave us architectural details that finally gave the house an identity.  We removed the one car garage that was in the middle portion of the house and repurposed it as a much needed mudroom.  We replaced the windows with larger ones and added more of our beloved window boxes to the house.  

portico

As you can see, I did get my portico.  I just love the chunky corbels and the curved eyebrow above the door.  I can't say enough good things about the entire process, particularly about the lead carpenter, Andre Finn.  His work and craftmanship was amazing, we were sad to see them finish the project.

Side view of house

Above the new bay window you might notice the exposed rafters and the trellis to the side.  Next year, you'll see some climbing hydrangea making it's way up the walls.  We did have to rethink some of our landscaping because once the beautiful corbels came into play, we didn't want to hide them with overly large bushes.  Instead we went to lower profile shrubs in the front beds.

new walk way

As they say, "It takes a village" and it did in our case.  Ben Gifford created our beautiful "old" rock wall and brick pathway leading to the mudroom.  He was able to create a nice flow from the old brick stairs and patio to the new doors leading to the mudroom and back gardens.  His rock wall sits in front of what used to be the third garage  ( I believe it was original to the house before the add-ons). 

another view

Added bonus

With the addition of new windows came the ability to create a window seat in my living room.  It looks out onto my front gardens and has proved to be a comfortable spot for a cup of tea.  I worked with Mary Bablitch from Phillips Design in Concord to design the window treatments and window seat cushion.  I couldn't be happier.

front stoop

So glad to finally be able to share our summer project.  It's almost complete - we need to finish the driveway and then it's a wrap.  For now, I think I'll grab my art books, a cup of tea and sit in my sunny, comfortable window seat.

See you next week,

Ellen ~