Mary Bohman and Paul Gibson’s 1950s-era rambler in North Arlington had never been renovated. “We had the original midcentury classic bathrooms, the original kitchen cabinets and counters,” Bohman said. And after 10 years of owning the “closed off” home, with no windows facing the wooded backyard, the couple thought moving out would be the way to get their dream home. But remodeling made more financial sense, and Bohman and Gibson loved their neighborhood. But how to add space, light and modern fixtures in a 1,400-square-foot house?
morris-day.com“>Morris-Day, a residential design and construction company, came in with “the pumpkin analogy,” architect Rob Morris said. “You cut the head, you reach inside and grab all the guts, and you start over.”
morris-day.com“>Morris-Day Inc.: morris-day.com
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In housing terms, that means morris-day.com“>Morris-Day removed the roof and all interior partition walls, all electrical and plumbing, and even the windows. “They did leave the floor joists between the basement and the first floor,” Bohman said.
The renovation added a second floor and opened the first floor into one large combined family room, dining room and kitchen with two work zones and a view of the porch and backyard. But, because the wood trim is treated differently in each space, the overall effect doesn’t feel overwhelming.
Ditto with the colors Morris chose, which are “not vanilla” but not unrestrained, either.
“I get nervous when I go into certain houses,” he jokes. “It’s like getting your tooth pulled and they didn’t tell you in advance.”
To counteract that feeling, though the bathroom uses forest green tile and peach in the dining room and cabinets, Morris coordinated the home’s hardware from room to room, so the paper towel bars, for example, coordinate with the doorknobs. “You can go from space to space and it’s not jarring,” Morris explained.
To pull together the original structure, an addition the exterior of the house got a semitransparent red stain on the woven shingles. “They had ideas about a cottage that would be in the woods on a lake in western Wisconsin,” Morris said, and the red slightly resembles a Wisconsin barn.
Upstairs are three bedrooms and a study. “We wanted enough bedrooms for resale value, but we don’t have kids and didn’t want the house to have so many rooms it felt like we were getting lost in it,” Bohman said.
Building up instead of out is practical on a number of levels, Morris said. Because pos/world/ War II homes were built to meet strong housing codes, “those bungalows and ramblers could support eight stories,” he said. That means it’s much cheaper to add a second floor than to pour foundation and build outward.
Arlington’s permitting structure also encourages vertical add-ons; a second floor can get all its permits in two weeks rather than the months and thousands of dollars in fees an addition or new construction permit would require.
Building up also meant Bohman and Gibson got to keep their trees, gardens and fishpond unchanged.
“We just love sitting and looking out on the backyard,” Bohman said. “It’s just bright, it’s got that open feel. And from our master bedroom [on the second floor], we had no idea the big vistas we’d have. We see over the treetops.”
The renovation took six months, during which Bohman and Gibson lived in a rented townhouse. But the “new” home is just what they wanted.
