Mail-Order Remade
A careful remodel respects the character of a house and a 'hood
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 BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Multiple-paned windows, French doors and pale paint and floors create light, airy interiors.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The new master bath is part of the 700-square-foot, second-story addition. Its clean, simple lines harmonize with the home's style while the little hexagonal floor tiles add instant age.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The new second story, containing master bedroom, reading room and bath, fits seamlessly on top of the old house, with a roofline echoing the distinctive pagoda style of the main floor.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The Asian feel of the porch beams and pagoda roofline have a modern sensibility, though the original design is nearly a century old.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The built-in breakfast nook at one end of the kitchen used to be a storage space that wasted the beautiful windows. Now the nook is so well used that the family calls it the bistro.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The new master bedroom has an appealing, tucked-beneath-the-eaves feeling despite plenty of light and headroom.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES You'd never guess that this stairway to the second floor didn't exist before the remodel. Its materials, trim, lighting and quiet, Zen-like feel integrate so well with the rest of the house. |
WHEN A YOUNG couple approached them about a remodeling job in Wallingford, architects Steve Hoedemaker and Tom Bosworth turned them down. "Our initial reaction was no, don't do anything, it's too charming," recalls Hoedemaker.
Eric and Karen Lonergan found the pagoda-style bungalow mid-renovation. The windows were boarded up, the inside dark and dreary. The porch off the dining room was decrepit, and the cement basement was creepy. The generous corner lot was a messy construction zone. But the young couple fixed the place up a bit, moved in, and loved the location and the neighborhood. While they wanted to retain the bungalow's essential character, they needed more space than the existing two bedrooms and single bath. "There were lots of pieces of this house that were pretty funky," says Karen of the1911 house originally ordered from the Sears catalog.
In autumn of 2003 the Lonergans began brainstorming with Hoedemaker. They'd worked with JAS Design Build in the past, so they felt comfortable hiring the contractor bid-free. The result of the collaboration is a seamless addition that looks as if it's always been there. In fact, you're sure the new second story should have been sent mail-order along with the rest of the house nearly a hundred years ago.
A good deal, indeed
The Lonergan home is bungalow floor plan No. 264, page 244, in the Sears Modern Home Mail Order Catalog. The advertisement reads:
"While the bungalow on this page is neither extreme nor extravagant, it has all the ear-marks of a cozy, well planned, artistic little home.
"Cost? For $1,106.00 we will furnish all the material to build this Five-Room Bungalow. . . By allowing a fair price for labor, cement, brick and plaster, which we do not furnish, this bungalow can be built for about $2,800.00 including all material and labor."
Read it and weep.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. shows prescience: "Bungalow authorities all agree that this style of architecture has come to stay. They claim that as the years go by the bungalow will even be in more demand than at the present time, and should one wish to sell he will have little difficulty in finding a buyer if his building is constructed along the new lines."
Hoedemaker's design repeats the home's pagoda roofline, emphasizing its curvaceous appeal. The powerful column detailing around the porch, red front steps and deeply textured gray stucco exterior all accentuate the home's distinction. "This house has such history. It comes from a time when craftsmanship was so important," says Hoedemaker.
The handcrafted look continues out into the garden where low, dry-stack stone walls define the edges of the property, flower beds soften the stone, and a corner cutout in the wall forms a little street-side garden.
Early on, the Lonergans reassured neighbors that they didn't plan to ruin the character of the beloved old house. "There's such a long, bad history of second stories in Wallingford that people were really worried," says Karen Lonergan.
Although most of the work called for was above the existing roofline, structural issues required that the house be penetrated all the way to the basement. Most of the surprises came in the engineering and design phase rather than during construction, and in the end, few rooms remained untouched. The Lonergans don't even want to think about how much the 700-square-foot addition ended up costing per foot. Of course, they also got a new porch off the dining room, new wooden windows that open out, and a fresh look throughout the old home. "It snowballed from a small addition to a big project, although it doesn't look like it from the outside," says Hoedemaker.
The stairway leading up to the new master suite is flooded with natural light, making it seem larger than its minimal dimensions. Built-in bookshelves and a large window make walking up the stairs a pleasant journey. At the top, there's a new bath tiled in crisp white hexagons, a master bedroom, view to downtown Seattle, and a little nursery for the baby who arrived in November. A floating wall allows flexibility for future reconfiguration, but for now, it's all working just fine.
Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.
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