Roof Lines The most complex part of the design was tying together the roof of the center structure with the new raised roofs of the existing houses. Narmour and Sloop took digital pictures of the houses, projected them onto the computer screen and started designing the roof. The team wanted the mass of the roof to look appropriate. “It was tricky to tie two roofs together that had no relation to each other,” Narmour says. “Curtis is a master at dealing with roof forms and pitches and making them look good and shed water.”
“If you make a mistake that involves water it becomes very costly,” Doerre agrees. To maintain control, Doerre used his own crew to frame the roof. They enlarged or enhanced the existing roofs, but kept the basic framing.
While framing the rear hip roof, Doerre realized that to distribute the roof load, he would have to place a column in the middle of the unit. But he called in a structural engineer, who said they could install a header to transfer the loads to the ends of the supported beams instead.
The design called for the lower roof of one existing house to tie into the wall of the new two-story building. Owner MacSorley and Doerre were concerned that water would become trapped in the seam. Doerre had the roofer build a 3-foot-wide triangular cricket to span the seam and divert water to the roof edge. “It turned into a neat architectural feature all on its own, a little piece of art that you only see when you are upstairs in the new building,” MacSorley says. In some sections where the roofs tie together, Doerre installed larger gutters as a precaution to handle any water drainage in the short span of space.
To prepare the structure for the new upper stories, Doerre’s framers sistered the existing 2×6 joists.
“When you put floor load in attic area, you can’t just put plywood down on rafters, you have to beef it up and add structure to meet codes for office loads. It also helps with privacy and noise between floors,” Narmour says.
Tying It Together MacSorley wanted to use materials to maintain the building’s history and call attention to the fact that the single structure was created from several buildings.
“We wanted the units to have a certain quality of life, even though they were offices,” she says. The team chose cedar shingles to pull together the look, but kept the original brick and added new brick on the front of the new building. They also used HardiPlank siding on the side and rear of the house. The new windows are wood with aluminum exterior cladding. MacSorley wanted an accent color to contrast with the white trim on the house so she chose a deep burgundy for the mullions.
“Value engineering” helped her make decisions on some details. For example, she chose a tapered box column for the porch instead of pre-made round columns that were more expensive. She did not specify hardwood for the new upstairs floors and dropped the idea of adding window boxes and trellises.
The team says the project sends a message to homeowners and developers who replace old buildings with oversized structures. “Almost anything can be done. You just don’t know it until you put it on paper and put prices to it and then make value judgment to see if it is feasible,” Narmour says. “Some people do not even go to that effort and you lose a lot of character and charm of these older homes.”
The cost of the project was about $95 per square foot, which fit MacSorley’s research on what the market would bear. She sold all four units and recouped her investment. Several of the new office condo owners were drawn to the old heart pine and white oak floor and fireplaces. She says one office owner purchased rocking chairs so they could enjoy the old-fashioned porches.