The Big Island
Hill says he “couldn’t bear to subdivide existing volumes into tiny, separate rooms.” Combining the kitchen, dining, and living areas was a simple way to maintain spatial volume. The galley kitchen with high cabinets on one side became the edge of the entire room, and a large island anchors the space.
Made of maple, the 4-foot-by-13-foot island houses a dishwasher, sink, microwave, and storage. “The island is this wonderful work area — cooking on one side, playing on another,” Hill says. “It’s the place we gather the most.”
Behind the cabinet wall is a “wet box” housing the master bath and laundry room. When opened, the wooden pocket door in that wall allows a view all the way from the front to the back of the house. “I wanted this area to feel like it was a floating box,” Hill says.
Ceiling the Deal
The existing ceiling was covered with 2-foot-by-8-foot sheet steel stamped panels nailed to the ceiling trusses.
Hill removed the panels, finding it best to do so from above, in the attic — rather than stand underneath — since the deconstruction process revealed 90 years of accumulated raccoon droppings, dust and debris, and a 1930s pool cue above the panels. Once taken down, he pressure washed the panels and painted them with latex paint. The crew hung drywall and attached the panels through it to the wood joists. There were enough undamaged panels to use in the two front spaces up to the kitchen cabinets. Four crown molding corner pieces were missing, and Hill, who had studied sculpture, replicated them out of plaster.