entries: best remodel

Gettliffe Architecture

The Gettliffe Residence Addition/Remodel

Original Home
The house was built in 1945, as a 900 s.f. prefabricated post-war home made of steel purloins and minimally insulated plywood panels. A bedroom and entry were added in the 1980’s, bringing the home’s square footage to 1100 s.f.. In 1996, the owner/architect reconfigured the upstairs, and a detached studio/guest suite was built at the end of the driveway. The addition shown here, also designed by the owner/ architect, was completed in August 2003, and added 400 s.f. to the main house, bringing the total to 1500 s.f.

Program
The program called for creating a combination Dining Room / Office / Sunspace / Sitting Room that would open the house to the backyard, as well as creating a new, reconfigured Kitchen, relocating the Laundry Room, and creating a full bathroom on the home’s second level. There was a desire to keep the home relatively small, yet with an open, generous feel.

Site Design and Exterior
While expanding the house toward the backyard, the design attempts to not overwhelm the site with the new addition, but rather to create pleasant exterior spaces and pathways, such as the patio between the house and studio. The addition maintains the scale of the original home, while differentiating the added space through stucco and mahogany plywood which contrast with the older gray clapboard siding.

Dining Room / Sunspace
As experienced from the interior, the radiating plan of the Dining Room / Sunspace with its multiple openings provides visual and physical access to every corner of the backyard, creating a casual, outdoor feel to the space. The horizontal openness is enhanced by a sense of vertical openness as well, with upper windows at 5 different orientations rising above 2 structural steel beams.

Kitchen
The central, open Kitchen is treated as part of a “servant” ensemble of cabinetry and poured-in-place concrete countertops which extends into and around the Dining Room / Sunspace, and includes a bar, office, bookshelves and music station. Beech cabinetry provides unified facing for appliances and pantry.

The Kitchen is at the center of a progressive transition of spaces leading from the openness of the sun-protected terrace, through the Dining Room / Sunspace, and on to the relative privacy of the Living Room and its fireplace. This configuration allows it to equally serve the “summer” living area (Dining Room / Sunspace) and the “winter” living area (Living Room with fireplace).

Bath
The bathroom also prioritizes openness to the outdoors with a triple orientation, and large, East-facing windows that allow morning sun to stream in. Views go beyond and above the accessible roof deck to the canopy of surrounding trees. Inside, a concrete floor, tile walls and open glass shower and bath partitions create a “water room” which can be splashed or hosed down as needed.

Gettliffe Architecture
2970 Washington St.
Boulder, Colorado 80304

Tel. 303 449-9155
Fax 303 402-9007

www.gettliffe.com

Copyright 2005 Brock Publishing Company
homes@brockpub.com