The first phase of this master plan is complete.

Above is the Butler’s Pantry, which replaced the existing bathroom and serves as a connection to the four-season porch. An existing bedroom was renovated for a new bathroom, as seen below.

The exterior was resided, reroofed and third-floor windows were replaced. A unique part of this project was adding an exterior hot tub to the third level. Creative structural design allowed us to safely accomplish the feat: the full tub weighs as much as a Volkswagen Beetle! The four-season porch finishes were undisturbed during this work, and the hot tub has been used frequently through the winter. It’s lofty perch affords privacy to the bathers and a wonderful view of the stars at night.

The finished product looks good and the owners are pleased with the outcome.

The master plan was developed to convert the attic space into a new Master Suite, but that is being reconsidered. The unfinished attic now seems to be a better entertaining space, so a reconfiguration may be forth-coming.

A little exterior painting is all that remains on this addition.

The addition tackled a tough site problem and a challenging blend of historically unique structural additions. The L-shaped lot wrapped around the neighboring parcel. The home’s previous additions were done with poor or absent foundations.

Now the addition affords space for a sorely needed back entry and mud room, a Master Bedroom, larger bedrooms, and two bathrooms. The kitchen will be remodeled in a subsequent phase; It will be a much more functional kitchen due to the space opened up by the expansion.

For more before photos and the design sketch, see previous posts on this home.

As the trees begin to bud, an already humble addition recedes behind its craftsman host.

Our design intention for this project was to create an addition that appeared minimal from the street, allowing the colorfully painted bungalow to retain its visual identity. The modern form ducks cleanly under the existing eave, forcing no modification to the roof lines. It’s angled walls preserve a comfortable relationship with the existing garage and stretch views to the back yard, where the Owner has grand garden plans. They also nicely reflect the artistic and edgy tastes of the occupants.

The garden roof will be installed this spring, incorporating storm-water runoff reductions and minimizing potential seepage into the existing basement. Landscaping around the base of the addition will follow. The interior of the addition is more modern, with stainless steel countertops and handmade tile as seen here. (The tile was created by Clay Squared to Infinity.)

Here is a shot of a completed historic home remodeling on Union Street in Northfield.

The project consisted of a complete exterior make-over and a small, two-story addition (single-gable portion on the right) that provided significant value to both the interior flow and exterior look of the home. For a sense of what existed before our work, see the before photo. I hope you’ll agree that we’ve added some richness, similar to other historic homes in Northfield.

Careful listening, collaborative design, and sensitive detailing allowed us to make a marked improvement to this home while respecting both the budget and the homeowners’ desire to do the work themselves.

You’ll see some of our higher profile projects in our portfolio, but that’s not all we do. This is another basement remodeling project.

The same design skills apply to these smaller projects where space is limited and constraints are numerous. Here we dealt with limited headroom in certain areas, water intrusion issues, and traffic flow concerns. The end product garnered high praise from our clients, who are retired professors on a fixed income, and their frequent guests.

We welcome your call to help you take care of your existing home’s requirements so that it better suits your needs.

This week, Mary and I visited a client’s home to review the solar power and hot water systems thet were recently installed. Here is the power converter, which received DC power from the solar panels and converts it to AC power, and Greg, the installer. This is one of two inverters installed inside the old barn, which proved to be a fine place to mount the photovoltaic panels.

Access is only occasionally needed, so the inverters were installed close to PV panels. The inverters are truly a minimal intrusion into the barn space.

The panels face south at about a 35-degree angle to match the existing roof slope. They are unobtrusive on top of the silver metal roof. We advised our client to locate the panels on the barn instead of the house due to the existing trees around the house and the fine solar access afforded on the barn, as shown below.

The solar domestic hot water panels, however, fit easily on the roof of the home, where they will receive plenty of sunlight. The hot water storage tank thermometer read 125 degrees despite the 38-degree outdoor temperature.

Innovative Power Systems designed and provided both hot water and photovoltaic panels systems. Our role has been primarily advocacy and consultation on the solar systems, which were added late in the design process. Where appropriate in all our projects, we incorporate “solar ready” strategies into our projects so that our clients can easily and affordably add these systems when the time is right. In this case, the SDHW systems dovetailed with construction and the PV system followed shortly thereafter.

Click here to see some portfolio images of this project, which at this point are largely planning images. We hope to add more photographs this spring.