Urban Renewal

To enable a through-view from the front door to the back of the house — a 66-foot sightline — and create a sense of openness, the designers turned the main staircase to the side. Now the stair not only serves all three levels of the home but also is accessible from a porte cochere at the midpoint of the driveway, which runs along the east elevation. With a respectful nod to the home’s history, the two front rooms — a dining room and an office/parlor — were restored to their original formality. The restoration is enhanced by the deep paneled wainscoting that carries through the two rooms and the foyer to the staircase vestibule and along the walls of the staircase itself. “When you walk into the house, this really sets the tone,” says interior designer Ron Nowfel of Robb & Stucky Interiors of Altamonte Springs, Fla.

The design of the main floor plan also involved adding a suite with a wheelchair-accessible bathroom to accommodate, if necessary, an elderly, live-in parent; a new mud room (another anomaly for Orlando) acts as a buffer between the detached garage and the main living area.

The centerpiece of the renewed main level, however, is the kitchen and family room. The two spaces combine for 750 square feet of living area separated only by a serving/eating bar, an arrangement that satisfies contemporary home-buyer demands. “I wanted a kitchen that today’s family would be happy with,” says Kassik, who designed the cabinets with the manufacturer. “Having it communicate with the family room is very important to today’s lifestyle.”

UPSTAIRS A new, conditioned wine room is among the amenities. Just as the main level needed an overhaul, the upstairs also needed airing out and updating. Divided into four small rooms served by just one powder room, the only thing the original plan offered was the charm of quirky closets resulting from the home’s steep roofline and gables on all four sides.

PSG Construction challenged the design team to remake the space with a pair of full bedroom suites within the original footprint. Kassik used the space from one of the existing bedrooms for the new staircase and the bulk of the new bathroom that would serve the front bedroom. She then ran the second full bath for the other bedroom suite along the existing hallway, which she extended; the original bath and closet became a walk-in, semi-conditioned attic — the perfect, energy-conscious environment for the bulk of the mechanical equipment serving the upstairs because it enables the components to operate under less stress from high temperatures and humidity and extends their design lives compared with a typical, unconditioned space. The peaked ceilings in the bedrooms, meanwhile, were dropped slightly and flattened to accommodate modern ductwork.

The new detached garage features a welcoming outdoor living area and a studio apartment above it. The design team also retained the home’s original charm by using the existing gables and shed dormers of the addition to create new niches. A prime example is the crawlspace created along one sidewall of the front bedroom, accessible by concealed doors on either end. “We wanted to keep it as period-looking as possible,” Nowfel says.

NEW SPACES The addition of a full-height, full-length, 1,446-square-foot basement not only nearly tripled the home’s available living space but also afforded the design/build team the opportunity to create both new and flexible-use spaces typically only found in modern-day homes, if included at all.

From front to back, the basement level includes a walk-in mechanical area that makes it easy to service a variety of systems; an open area envisioned as an exercise room or studio; an independently conditioned, 1,500-bottle wine cellar; a generously sized laundry room; a concrete block “safe” room with plenty of long-term storage capacity; a full bath; and a nominal 16-by-27-foot “flex” space, furnished as a family room and complete with a mini-kitchen/bar and access to the back courtyard and outdoor living area.

The outdoor living area above the detatched garage. Two floors up, the second level of the home’s addition is all master suite. Fronted by a morning kitchen in the hallway, the comfortable bedroom gives way to a bright, airy bath and walk-in closet. A claw-foot tub (warmed by an in-wall, direct-vent fireplace) harkens to the home’s historical roots, while a walk-in tiled shower provides modern convenience.

Another new space created by the design/build team is the detached garage at the back of the long, narrow lot. The driveway leading to the two-car garage transitions into a brick-paved courtyard that serves an adjacent, 360-square-foot outdoor living area. Featuring a fireplace and, within the chimney, a flat-screen television, as well as under-stair furniture storage, the space is protected by a concealed, motorized pest screen that can be lowered when necessary. The stairs lead to a studio apartment that, by local ordinance, can be rented or kept for a caregiver or a bounce-back child. —Rich Binsacca is a freelance writer in Boise, Idaho.