SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

A sign of a good design idea is when it solves three or more problems. For this house, that idea was to move the front entry from the front corner of the home to the generously sized side yard. The four problems this 73 square foot addition solved were 1) it made the living room more ‘livable’ by squaring off the corner (providing a place for the TV) and allowing for better furniture placement 2) it replaced the diagonal circulation path through the living room with a more logical path in-between the kitchen and living areas 3) it created a separate entry space with a generously sized coat closet (which was missing in the previous house) and 4) it created a way to access a (future) new patio area in the front of the home.

Unfortunately, these were not the only problems this home suffered from. There was no dining space, bathrooms were tiny and poorly arranged, the upstairs was accessed by a two-foot wide and terribly steep stairway that led up to a dark warren of small rooms, and all the systems needed complete updating. So for this tired old bungalow, that meant gutting it inside and out and starting over, fixing problems, and adding some style to breathe new life into this old home.