After seven years of living in their 1896 house, Liz and Patrick Sheehan had a well-thought-out wish list for the house where they are raising their three sons, who range in age from 1 to 17. They want to keep the Queen Anne Victorian elements they love, such as the front porch, bay windows, and multiple dormers. But they’d like to bring the interior layout and its segmented rooms—typical of the 19th century—into the modern era with a more open floor plan.
With budget in mind, the plan for the 3-story, 3,000-square-foot house will focus on the kitchen, bathrooms, and mechanical systems while also building a modest two-story (with basement) rear addition. The renovation, led by TOH home builder Charlie Silva, will be documented as part of TOH TV’s 47th season.
“We fell in love with the style of the house and its wonderful details such as the wooden floors, built-in cabinets, and fireplaces when we bought it, but once we moved in, we kept imagining how much better it could be with some layout changes,” says Liz. Another area to update is the backyard, which currently has a rotting pergola and unused frog pond, as well as overgrown trees and bushes. Says Patrick: “My wish list for the yard is low maintenance, a brick patio, and plenty of green space for the boys.”
Working with architect Marcus Springer, the Sheehans mapped out a plan, floor by floor. On the first floor, the biggest change is at the back of the house, where an adequate but closed-off kitchen will be replaced with a larger open-plan room that flows to an adjacent family room. Removing a wall and adding a bumpout will make way for the new kitchen-family area plus a new mudroom and powder room. A bigger rear deck will be possible as well.
“We’ll make good use of the bumpout going 15 feet off the back of the current kitchen to give the Sheehans the room they need,” says Charlie Silva.
Repurposing spaces is a key to the first-floor improvements. The dining room, currently located at the back of the house next to the kitchen (with a wall dividing the rooms), will move to the front of the house, currently a living room space. The newly open floor plan for the kitchen, featuring a large center island, will then flow to a family room with backyard views.
On the second floor, work will focus on creating a true primary suite for Liz and Patrick. Their bedroom currently has an awkward layout that includes a walk-through closet and odd room with two sinks—adjacent to a hallway full bath. Making use of the rear addition’s top floor, the plan calls for a full primary bath at the back of the house, plus walk-in closets for each of them, and an ample bedroom. The hallway bath will be moved so it is more centrally located between the other two second-floor bedrooms.
For the third floor, the current layout of two bedrooms, one bath, and an office nook will remain in place, but insulation will be added to the area holding the HVAC system’s air handler so that the heating and cooling system is more efficient.
In the basement, a key improvement will be building a conditioned gym, utilizing new space from the addition’s foundation. After exploring a number of HVAC options, the homeowners will work with the existing system but improve the distribution method; they will keep the location of the mechanicals in largely the same place in the center of the basement.
On the exterior, one big decision will be whether to replace the aluminum siding with traditional wooden clapboard siding or engineered wood. The landscape changes will focus primarily on removing unneeded or dysfunctional elements—pulling up an existing brick patio and removing a tree whose root system will damage any future patio that is built, in addition to removing the pergola and frog pond—while also addressing shrubs that have become overgrown and are encroaching on space that could be given over to play areas.
Throughout the renovation, the Sheehans are committed to preserving such details as a built-in china cabinet, original front-porch railings, and as much original Douglas fir flooring on the second floor as possible; the first floor will get new flooring. Liz even decided to keep a quirky two-steps-up/two-steps-down hallway feature from the front of the house to the kitchen, given its old-fashioned character. Removing fireplaces and chimneys, however, became a matter of gaining additional space for the new layout.
“There’s always some give and take, but we know the end result will give us the house we need, while keeping old character too,” says Liz.
