Photo: Jennifer M. Ramos © 2018 Houzz
Example of a cottage chic l-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor kitchen design in Austin with a drop-in sink, recessed-panel cabinets, green cabinets, wood countertops, white backsplash, wood backsplash, white appliances and brown countertops

Inspiration for a transitional dark wood floor eat-in kitchen remodel in Atlanta with beaded inset cabinets, gray cabinets, white backsplash, stainless steel appliances, beige walls and an island

This renovated brick rowhome in Boston’s South End offers a modern aesthetic within a historic structure, creative use of space, exceptional thermal comfort, a reduced carbon footprint, and a passive stream of income. DESIGN PRIORITIES. The goals for the project were clear - design the primary unit to accommodate the family’s modern lifestyle, rework the layout to create a desirable rental unit, improve thermal comfort and introduce a modern aesthetic. We designed the street-level entry as a shared entrance for both the primary and rental unit. The family uses it as their everyday entrance - we planned for bike storage and an open mudroom with bench and shoe storage to facilitate the change from shoes to slippers or bare feet as they enter their home. On the main level, we expanded the kitchen into the dining room to create an eat-in space with generous counter space and storage, as well as a comfortable connection to the living space. The second floor serves as master suite for the couple - a bedroom with a walk-in-closet and ensuite bathroom, and an adjacent study, with refinished original pumpkin pine floors. The upper floor, aside from a guest bedroom, is the child's domain with interconnected spaces for sleeping, work and play. In the play space, which can be separated from the work space with new translucent sliding doors, we incorporated recreational features inspired by adventurous and competitive television shows, at their son’s request. MODERN MEETS TRADITIONAL. We left the historic front facade of the building largely unchanged - the security bars were removed from the windows and the single pane windows were replaced with higher performing historic replicas. We designed the interior and rear facade with a vision of warm modernism, weaving in the notable period features. Each element was either restored or reinterpreted to blend with the modern aesthetic. The detailed ceiling in the living space, for example, has a new matte monochromatic finish, and the wood stairs are covered in a dark grey floor paint, whereas the mahogany doors were simply refinished. New wide plank wood flooring with a neutral finish, floor-to-ceiling casework, and bold splashes of color in wall paint and tile, and oversized high-performance windows (on the rear facade) round out the modern aesthetic. RENTAL INCOME. The existing rowhome was zoned for a 2-family dwelling but included an undesirable, single-floor studio apartment at the garden level with low ceiling heights and questionable emergency egress. In order to increase the quality and quantity of space in the rental unit, we reimagined it as a two-floor, 1 or 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with a modern aesthetic, increased ceiling height on the lowest level and provided an in-unit washer/dryer. The apartment was listed with Jackie O'Connor Real Estate and rented immediately, providing the owners with a source of passive income. ENCLOSURE WITH BENEFITS. The homeowners sought a minimal carbon footprint, enabled by their urban location and lifestyle decisions, paired with the benefits of a high-performance home. The extent of the renovation allowed us to implement a deep energy retrofit (DER) to address air tightness, insulation, and high-performance windows. The historic front facade is insulated from the interior, while the rear facade is insulated on the exterior. Together with these building enclosure improvements, we designed an HVAC system comprised of continuous fresh air ventilation, and an efficient, all-electric heating and cooling system to decouple the house from natural gas. This strategy provides optimal thermal comfort and indoor air quality, improved acoustic isolation from street noise and neighbors, as well as a further reduced carbon footprint. We also took measures to prepare the roof for future solar panels, for when the South End neighborhood’s aging electrical infrastructure is upgraded to allow them. URBAN LIVING. The desirable neighborhood location allows the both the homeowners and tenant to walk, bike, and use public transportation to access the city, while each charging their respective plug-in electric cars behind the building to travel greater distances. OVERALL. The understated rowhouse is now ready for another century of urban living, offering the owners comfort and convenience as they live life as an expression of their values. Eric Roth Photo

photos by Susan Teare • www.susanteare.com
Inspiration for a small rustic beige one-story wood gable roof remodel in Burlington

Photo: Benjamin Hill © 2017 Houzz
Home theater - traditional home theater idea in Houston

Whitney Lyons
Deck - modern rooftop gravel and rooftop deck idea in Portland with no cover

Located in, Summit Park, Park City UT lies one of the most efficient houses in the country. The Summit Haus – designed and built by Chris Price of PCD+B, is an exploration in design and construction of advanced high performance housing. Seeing a rising demand for sustainable housing along with rising Carbon emissions leading to global warming, this house strives to show that sensible, good design can create spaces adequate for today’s housing demands while adhering to strict standards. The house was designed to meet the very rigid Passiv House rating system – 90% more efficient than a typical home in the area. The house itself was intended to nestle neatly into the 45 degree sloped site and to take full advantage of the limited solar access and views. The views range from short, highly wooded views to a long corridor out towards the Uinta Mountain range towards the east. The house was designed and built based off Passiv Haus standards, and the framing and ventilation became critical elements to maintain such minimal energy requirements. Zola triple-pane, tilt-and-turn Thermo uPVC windows contribute substantially to the home’s energy efficiency, and takes advantage of the beautiful surrounding of the location, including forrest views from the deck off of the kitchen. Photographer: Douglas Burke

Example of a mid-sized southwest backyard stone patio design in Denver with a roof extension

Timber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube

Inspiration for an industrial garden shed remodel in Seattle

Mid-century modern open concept light wood floor, exposed beam and brown floor living room photo in Portland with a standard fireplace, a tile fireplace, white walls and no tv

Kyle J Caldwell
Inspiration for a transitional powder room remodel in Boston with white countertops

This four-story townhome in the heart of old town Alexandria, was recently purchased by a family of four. The outdated galley kitchen with confined spaces, lack of powder room on main level, dropped down ceiling, partition walls, small bathrooms, and the main level laundry were a few of the deficiencies this family wanted to resolve before moving in. Starting with the top floor, we converted a small bedroom into a master suite, which has an outdoor deck with beautiful view of old town. We reconfigured the space to create a walk-in closet and another separate closet. We took some space from the old closet and enlarged the master bath to include a bathtub and a walk-in shower. Double floating vanities and hidden toilet space were also added. The addition of lighting and glass transoms allows light into staircase leading to the lower level. On the third level is the perfect space for a girl’s bedroom. A new bathroom with walk-in shower and added space from hallway makes it possible to share this bathroom. A stackable laundry space was added to the hallway, a few steps away from a new study with built in bookcase, French doors, and matching hardwood floors. The main level was totally revamped. The walls were taken down, floors got built up to add extra insulation, new wide plank hardwood installed throughout, ceiling raised, and a new HVAC was added for three levels. The storage closet under the steps was converted to a main level powder room, by relocating the electrical panel. The new kitchen includes a large island with new plumbing for sink, dishwasher, and lots of storage placed in the center of this open kitchen. The south wall is complete with floor to ceiling cabinetry including a home for a new cooktop and stainless-steel range hood, covered with glass tile backsplash. The dining room wall was taken down to combine the adjacent area with kitchen. The kitchen includes butler style cabinetry, wine fridge and glass cabinets for display. The old living room fireplace was torn down and revamped with a gas fireplace wrapped in stone. Built-ins added on both ends of the living room gives floor to ceiling space provides ample display space for art. Plenty of lighting fixtures such as led lights, sconces and ceiling fans make this an immaculate remodel. We added brick veneer on east wall to replicate the historic old character of old town homes. The open floor plan with seamless wood floor and central kitchen has added warmth and with a desirable entertaining space.

Jeff Herr
Mid-sized transitional white one-story stucco exterior home idea in Atlanta with a mixed material roof

Pepper Watkins
Nursery - mid-sized scandinavian gender-neutral light wood floor and beige floor nursery idea in DC Metro with blue walls

Front Porch Photography: Stacy Zarin Goldberg Photography; Interior Design: Kristin Try Interiors; Builder: Harry Braswell, Inc.
This is an example of a coastal front porch design in DC Metro with decking and a roof extension.

Blake Middleton
Country green exterior home photo in Charleston

Photo: Esther Hershcovic © 2016 Houzz
Living room - eclectic living room idea in London

Luis Valdizon
Danish home design photo in Vancouver