Renovation & Addition: Tunbridge Renovation

This phase took just under 3 months to complete and during the construction, we were approached by the client to execute the kitchen remodel she had had in mind. That phase occurred later in the summer and included a complete gutting of the kitchen and reconstruction of a one of a kind chef's kitchen. We utilized stock cabinetry that had been modified by the client to suit her needs and design aesthetics. Custom ductwork was fabricated to execute a range hood in the island within the timber frame and top end Thermador appliances were installed. Quartz counter tops finished things off. The end result was an incredible kitchen with a spectacular easterly morning view onto a covered entry porch.

By late Summer, we began discussions with the client about the addition she wanted to build that would include a garage, mudroom, and extension of her dining room, and a guest apartment above the garage.  This project was undertaken at the last minute and by this point we had developed a great working relationship with the client.  We agreed on the final shape of the structure and set the construction into motion while we finished a lot of the details  as we went along.  The collaborative process with the client worked well and she was able to customize every bit of the space to her needs and specifications.  What resulted was a unique and extremely functional space for both her and her guests. 

The site and existing home provided multiple constraints on design.  After many attempts on mating the addition to the existing home, a mudroom connector that had a flat roof proved the most successful in addressing all the needs.  It maintained access to an upstairs bedroom that had a set of French windows to allow for large furniture to enter and exit the second floor of the existing house.  It connected the garage to the home with  the mudroom without creating bad roof drainage issues.  And we engineered the roof to carry one of the most spectacular features of the home, a roof deck, accessible from the main home and the guest apartment above the garage. 

The entire addition was "slab on grade" construction with a radiant slab heating system in the mudroom, dining room extension, and garage.  The apartment above the garage utilized hot water baseboard.  The required 3 car garage was a challenge to design a building around without the new structure  looming over the existing home.  We came up with a design where the front faced was made to look like a 2 car garage that added a third bay shed roof on the far side.  This helped keep the mass of the facade down to the appropriate scale.  However, after seeing the angular pitch change in the roofs, the client asked if we could "smooth" it out.  Our solution became known as "the swoop" amongst our crew and we added some custom rafters and sheathing in the valley to turn the angular pitch change to a gradual curve - a design element we then duplicated in the bridge to the back orchard from the apartment. 

The building was sheathed and then coated with Tremco's Enviro-Dri air-sealing and weather barrier coating.  We then used Icynene open cell spray foam on the entire structure and achieved a 1.67 ACH @ 50 Pascals blower door test on the apartment using relatively conventional construction methods and some attention to detail.  All doors and windows in the additional and existing home were wither Marvin Integrity or Marvin mainline.