At the end of a long private drive atop a hill sits this beautiful modern home surrounded by 1.4 park-like acres. The grounds complement the trees and plantings in an urban country park setting with the seclusion of being in your very own park and close to the center of town.
The programmatic goals were to enlarge a very small kitchen & dining area, add a new den on the 1st floor having direct connection to the pool area that had not previously existed, and add a new master bedroom on the 2nd floor. The new mahogany walkway leading to the pool continues into the house to provide access and a direct visual connection to the pool.
The original T11 sided house has been rebuilt as a white stucco volume. Compositionally the white geometric box becomes the anchor for the 3 new Cedar additions.
All 4 bedrooms were provided with a sitting area. A new, cantilevered 2-storey bay window with built-in window seats has been added to the original small bedrooms facing the pool. The interior of these bay windows have been clad in wood to emphasize their material connection to the wood clad exterior.
Sustainable initiatives:
The original inefficient systems of the house were fully upgraded by converting from oil to a new gas heating system as well as with a new HVAC system with Aprilaire de-humidification.
To bring the existing 2 x 4 exterior wall construction to a commensurate level of the R value with the walls of the new addition insulation was added on both the exterior and interior sides of the original 2 x 4 walls. The interior side of the 2 x 4 walls were thickened by attaching 2 x 2 firing strips to the existing 2 x 4 studs to provide space for new 6” high performance R21 batt insulation. On the exterior side 1 1/2” rigid insulation was added over the sheathing beneath the Sto Powerwall stucco system. The new 2 x 6 exterior walls of the addition are insulated with 2” closed cell blown-in insulation on the exterior side of the wall cavity and R13 high density batts on the interior side of the wall cavity. A proper air barrier was created by insulation layers that sealed the envelope. A highly insulated EPDM roof assembly was created by adding 1/2” roof insulation board over 1 1/2” Celotex rigid insulation board above the existing cavity batt insulation in the roof.
In addition to upgrading the insulation the original 30+ year old inefficient and defective aluminum windows were removed. New Andersen windows were positioned to provide maximum day lighting and openness to the landscape.
Pre-finished engineered oak floors, low or zero voc paints (Benjamin Moore Aura), wood finishes (AFM Safecoat) and caulks and sealants (Titebond Geen choice) were also used throughout.
