Award-winning remodelers blend the old with the new to transform dated houses while retaining their historical charm.
Renovating a historic home requires patience, perseverance and acute attention to detail from the past. Remodelers must balance preservation with modernization and use materials that look as if they have always been there. The design also needs to reflect the time period the house was built and follow preservation guidelines to maintain its historical significance and architectural details.
Structural issues such as rotting often plague older homes and entail a remediation process to fix as well as upgrade all members and connections. Previous remodels gone awry can present even more obstacles for contractors who want to restore the house to its former glory. No matter what, energy efficiency updates should be incorporated so the building ages gracefully and meets code.
Each of the winners in our annual Master Design Awards for a historic renovation modernized a home while retaining its elements and charm. They successfully blended the old with the new to transform a dated house into one that captures the best of both worlds. Their projects display an ability to recreate the past yet also reimagine the future for clients who own a historic residence.
Grand Entrance
Originally built as a dairy barn in the 1740s, the structure was converted into a residence in the 20th century. The owner bought the home 40 years ago and took on a renovation, but since then the house had been untouched. She contacted a general contractor, Pinemar, Inc., to remodel the kitchen and add on a family room, although the project quickly grew into a complete renovation.
“We did a pretty large renovation of a historic brownstone in the Rittenhouse Square District of Philadelphia a number of years ago, and then we went on to do a project for that client’s sister,” says Kyle Lissack, president of Pinemar. “This project was actually for the mother of the brother and sister. She lived in the house and raised her kids there. She was in her 70s when we did this.”
On the back of the barn, what is often called the L contained a “whole bunch of horse stables” on the lower level, he notes. The existing kitchen above had been shoved into the corner of the L on the upper level; therefore, it was dark and cramped, with drop soffits for huge can lights. “It just wasn’t very functional for them anymore,” Lissack says. “They tried upgrading their appliances and stuff over time, but the kitchen was not in any way ever going to be a gracious living space.”
The kitchen led to a laundry area, and the space between them (the same width as a horse stable about 15 feet long) served as a makeshift family room. Pinemar fulfilled the wishes of the client and expanded the area to create a true family room that connects to the new kitchen. “She never had a family room; she had a living room/dining room, but she had never had that family room,” Lissack notes. “It was just a part of the planning process—the kitchen became the family room.”
A larger laundry space with lots of cabinetry, multiple machines and more than enough area for folding clothes crossed another item off her list. The new garage below the family room addition updated the home for modern living as well. “What the farmers would do is have a barn where they would keep equipment—you know, the buggies and stuff,” Lissack says. “When this was built, there were no motorized vehicles, but they would keep their carriages on the lower level.
“On the upper level, they would mound up the dirt and build the barn into the bank of the earth,” he adds. “They would build up the dirt to create a ramp up to the place up top where they could keep hay or animals. So, you have these two levels. They’re both at grade; one’s above the other, though. You walked up to the barn, and they just popped an entry door in the masonry opening.”
The client, who never liked the front entrance, asked whether it could be nicer without changing the façade of the barn. Warren Claytor Architects suggested building a glass conservatory, which both created a proper entry hall to receive family and friends, and a sunroom/sitting area attached to her primary bedroom suite. A Dutch door leading into the house helps complete the new entry.
“It created a grander entry, a more welcoming entry for people than them just standing in the rain, knocking on a lumberyard door that had been placed in this big, weird wall,” Lissack notes.
Back to Basics
The new owners of a home built at the turn of the previous century opted to tackle an aggressive renovation to upgrade its systems and make the house more livable for a modern family. A prior owner had added a service wing, a tower on the northwest side and an exhibition gallery on the rear of the residence in 1912. The main entry was moved from the front to the side in 1923 when alterations changed the front porch to a sunroom, and the front entry hall became a living room.
“There were a lot of things that had to be reworked because of what had happened over time and what people had done to it,” says Elizabeth Wislar, director of marketing at Baxter Construction. “They took the original front porch off the house and put on a sunroom that was horrible looking. They also put up a hedge and fence, so there was no way to get to what once was the front door.”
Entering the home from a side street felt odd for architectural reasons and considering the beauty of the neighborhood, she adds. Baxter ripped off the unsightly sunroom on the front and brought back the original entrance by adding a new roof, columns and steps. The company also installed state-of-the-art security and lighting to make it even more attractive and architecturally flattering.
“The ceiling above what is now the front door—which was the original front door—somebody had cut through the joist supports to put in a huge Jacuzzi tub on the second floor,” Wislar notes. “The ceiling and floor from the room above had gone down 2 to 3 inches, so all of the plumbing and electricity had to be reworked after the floor was taken out, and the ceiling was put back in.”
As with any house this age, major structural obstacles needed to be overcome to provide a more comfortable living space. One of the home’s seven fireplaces, for example, had to be relocated back to its original position to regain the historically accurate architectural design and layout of the residence. “When we were in the basement, we could see that originally it was at a different angle, so we moved it back,” Wislar explains. “Stuff like that was important to the homeowner.”
The client wanted to keep a banister and a stained-glass window on the staircase going upstairs; therefore, Baxter encased the banister in plywood and put an actual railing on top of it, so there was a railing during construction. Because everything—laundry room appliances, the wood and molding—had to go up those stairs, the company added protection for the stained-glass window.
“There was just so much going up and down, and we pride ourselves on taking care of the bones of the house,” Wislar says. “Often we will put wood treads on top of stairs where there isn’t any carpeting, or there is no protection, because when people are carrying heavy materials, things can happen—and we just want to take great care in preserving the history of beautiful, older homes.”
To make the kitchen larger, Baxter dismantled then took out a chimney in the middle of the room and opened the space to the library, where the clients enjoy watching movies. A previous owner had added shelving to the main gallery to turn the room into a library. “It’s incredibly inclusive now and a great way to live modern life in this old home that didn’t exist before,” Wislar notes.
Comfort Is King
A pair of architects had lived in their 130-year-old rowhome in the East Passyunk neighborhood of South Philadelphia for 13 years. They dreamed of the renovation that would make this house, which was once owned by cabinetmakers, their forever home. Connected on both sides to other houses, the residence looked like the majority of homes in the city with a few important caveats.
“Usually these houses were pretty modest, but there were some things you saw that were kind of extra for this type of house,” says Kenny Grono, co-owner of Buckminster Green, a design-build remodeler. “One of those was the hardwood flooring. There were a lot of inlays, parquet mixed with standard straight boards. The existing cabinets in the kitchen were probably 70 or 80 years old, so it had some things that were a little more special than your average two-story rowhouse.”
The heating system, however, was served by an antiquated hot water boiler, and the narrow home lacked insulation up to today’s standards. Buckminster Green replaced the existing boiler with a 95-percent-efficiency Lochinvar boiler and paired it with a mini-split heat pump for cooling. The company also installed 2 inches of exterior-applied, poly-iso insulation underneath a TPO roof.
“One of the biggest goals of the project—and the biggest issues—was comfort and efficiency,” Grono notes. “They had old mechanical systems and basically no insulation in the house. We needed updated electrical and updated plumbing. A lot of things were beyond their useful life.”
Buckminster Green made the insulation continuous with exterior wall insulation applied to the rear facade and side (The rear of the house jogs in from the front). The company stabilized the rear brick, which had been patched over the years and was not in great shape, then applied a Prosoco liquid air barrier. ThermalBuck insulated bucks were installed around the old and new window openings, and furring strips on the bricks attach to siding with more exterior insulation.
Another layer of continuous insulation from ThermalTight with WRB attached was applied over top, and Marvin windows were installed with Hardie Plank siding. On the inside the company used SIGA interior membrane and tape for additional air-sealing. All the materials, scaffolding and tools were brought through the house because there is no alley or other access to the rear yard.
“We left the front intact, so that allowed us to do our exterior insulation and stuff on the back,” Grono explains. “If you were in a historic neighborhood and the facade that you were trying to insulate was visible from the street, you would have to go through a lot of approval processes. But none of that applied to us; there were no special things we had to do in terms of approvals.”
The elaborate inlays on the hardwood floors were barely visible after years of use. Refinishing all the existing floors brought those details to light. New terracotta tile floors were installed in the main bathroom, powder room, vestibule, office and kitchen. Coordinating custom cabinetry made of white oak and linoleum veneer now adorns the kitchen, living room and upstairs hall.
The main bathroom walls and shower were fabricated from Durat, a solid surface material made from recycled plastic. Buckminster Green also fabricated a custom base for the old kitchen sink, so it could become a potting station in the backyard. “After they were in the house for a while, I think the surprise is how much more comfortable it is in the winter and summer,” Grono says.