Making your House your Home

When you love your neighborhood and your house has “good bones” but needs improvements, it may be time to envision change.

In this newsletter we share more “Transformation Tales” from the construction sites and drawing boards of Torrey Architecture’s residential design practice.

Captain Sears Sets a New Course

In 1852, ship Captain John Sears proudly built his house in the fashionable Greek Revival style. Set behind mature maples, the Capt. Sears House had been lovingly maintained for decades but was due for upgrades both inside and out.

The challenge for Torrey Architecture was to add significant volume to the modestly-scaled original house while still retaining the prominence and grandeur of its original street-facing end-gabled entry elevation.

This resolution of these conflicting goals was accomplished with a smaller-scaled T-shaped addition set back from the street and by creative interpretation and skillful replication of its historic character-defining details. 

The steep staircase was rebuilt to current code (and functionality) while preserving its essential character and original newel post. The confined front entry stair hall was opened up to the living room and the stair extended into the new finished basement.

The owners’ program for their long-held second home was to create a first floor master bedroom suite with a generous family room and to add bedrooms upstairs for a three-generation Cape Cod retreat.

During the prerequisite review by Old King’s Highway Historic Commission, (as required for local permitting) the review board commented on the appropriateness of our proposed design. 

Today, we hope we’ve again made Captain Sears proud.

Photo credits:

David W Torrey,

BluWater Photography

General Contractor:

Mullen Building & Remodeling, LLC

www.MullenBuilding.com

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A New Family Homestead

Lewisburg Pennsylvania is an historic market town and county seat along the banks of the Susquehanna River. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Lewisburg’s central business district is surrounded by residential neighborhoods rich in post-Civil War architectural heritage. 

Our clients purchased their unique corner-lot house and carriage house with the intent of settling in and making it their own with much-needed upgrades to kitchen, baths and infrastructure along with new finishes throughout.

Our comprehensive design took full advantage of the large private back yard, opening up views with new windows and French doors, and enclosing stacking screen porches under the existing unifying roof. These underutilized spaces were put to better use, transformed into a new kitchen and a new master bath, both facing the private yard. 

A warm paint scheme brightens the façades and wrought iron benches at the front entrance portico now welcome family and friends to this updated classic, the new family homestead in historic Lewisburg.

The all-new kitchen now opens into the existing formal dining room through a former porch window. The kitchen, with a large new backyard window now extends into a former entry vestibule now converted into a sunroom. This informal breakfast room in turn steps out onto a new stone terrace wrapping around to the existing screen porch. 

Upstairs, the new master bedroom suite occupies the private rear façade and is complete with a light-filled master bath and his-and-hers walk-in closets. The third floor attic has now become two work-from-home offices, each with a transformative skylight and built-in window seat. A new full bath tucks into the eaves so that the third floor now converts to guest quarters for the owners’ large extended family. 

To add the icing on the cake, the original carriage house was completely rebuilt for a two-car garage and storage loft, with its original cupola reinstalled on the ridge, with its internal light now shining over the entire site where three generations now gather at their new Family Homestead in Lewisburg.

Photo credits:

David W. Torrey, Visualflow Media Co.

General Contractor:

Gray Builders, LLC; https://graybuilders.net/

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Lake House Addition

For our clients’ vacation home in New Hampshire’s ski country, we designed a new garage with a welcoming entrance and functional mudroom. The new saltbox-style one-car garage is separated from the house by a new entry/mudroom at the scale of a traditional breezeway. The garage is large enough for ample outdoor equipment storage, but small enough not to overwhelm the main house, a 1 ½ -story Cape.

The timber-framed entry porch provides shelter in all weather and has become the new main entry to the house. The mudroom, made comfortable with its radiant-heated tile floor, serves as an energy-saving airlock linking the kitchen to the garage, and is laid out for efficient outdoor gear storage. Serving as an enclosed breezeway with daylight from both sides, this connector space is equipped with specialized cubbies, closets and even a small office workstation to allow for working lake/ski get-aways.

The neighbors have remarked that the addition looks as if it had always been there. The Owners wonder how they’d ever lived without it.

Photo credits:

David W. Torrey, Visualflow Media Co.

General Contractor:

Boucher Construction

http://www.boucherconstruction.net/

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