Often, with a few simple gestures, a drab old house can become beautiful, and get a new lease on life. These improvements can range from a second-story addition, which completely changes the look of the house both inside and out, to a very simple and cost-effective “facelift”. Following are some examples, which show before and after photos, and describe the scope.
This project in Magnolia rebuilt a wing of an existing one-story house, creating a two-story addition with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a new laundry room up, and a remodeled kitchen, family room, bathroom and mechanical room down:
This project in the Ravenna neighborhood maintained the traditional appearance of the house from the street, but added a very modern box in the rear:
This project, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, took a boring flat roof box and dramatically updated it. The only addition was the 70 s.f. penthouse, to access the new full roof deck. The interior was completely reconfigured, and the exterior was re-designed to draw attention to the new solar array on top:
This project in Ballard was a full second-story addition, adding 3 bedrooms and 2 baths up, opening up the main floor to create a spacious, light-filled open plan, and raising the house 18″ to create a usable lower floor:
Another second story addition, in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood, this project minimized the work to the existing portions of the house, to stay within a limited budget:
This is a second story addition in Queen Anne that maintained the footprint of the existing house – while taking some cues from the original house (e.g. the stone facing), it’s a strong modern departure from the original traditional structure:
