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To Renovate or to Raze...
...Sometimes That is the Question

Text:
Jennifer Kain Defoe

Professional Photography: Dan Cutrona

Two beautiful waterfront homes filled with happy memories: we found two couples in this fortunate situation, each considering a major overhaul for their Cape Cod property. Either recently retired, or retiring in the near future, and with a growing family tree, these couples realized it was time to rethink what they needed from their homes.

Both couples initially started off with an expansion in mind, but early on in the process, things changed. For the family in a north-side home overlooking Barnstable Harbor, all it took was a nudge from their contractor, Chris Childs of Patriot Builders.

For the couple with the South Yarmouth home, it took a slap in the face from Mother Nature. They had already contacted Erik Tolley, architect and principle of ERT Architects, Inc., to design an addition and when Tolley dropped by on a winter day, he opened the front door and found a flood. A pipe had burst in an upstairs bath, flooding the first floor. Between the amount of damage and serious concerns about future mold problems for the asthmatic homeowner, it was a no-brainer; the house had to come down.

A north-side cottage becomes a full-grown home
Barnstable Project - Design & Construction: Patriot Builders

In 1982, Bill and Kathy Ford found themselves “in the mood to buy a second house,” as Bill puts it. They were open to pretty much all of New England, but since Kathy had relatives on the Cape, this is where they ended up really looking.

While out driving one day the couple came upon a simple Cape on a stunning lot with a killer view. The only problem was it wasn’t for sale. The following summer the Fords ran into their realtor at a Fourth of July party who said the property was on the market. The Fords finally had their house.

Bill and Kathy have three grown children, making things tight in the two-bedroom house, but it wasn’t until 2000, when the first grandchild arrived, that they began to entertain the idea of expanding. Another grandchild in 2002 was followed quickly by another and “by the time the sixth came, we knew we were in trouble,” said Kathy. It was then that the Fords began to consider buying a larger home.

“We looked in Osterville and every time we pulled into the driveway after seeing some spectacular house, Kathy would say ‘This is silly, our house has the constellation of everything we want,’” Bill explained. They love the proximity to both Hyannis and Boston, the seven miles of protected harbor where the kids can safely boat and, of course, the view.

“We added everything together and couldn’t find anything more perfect,” Kathy said.

The next hurdle was picking a contractor who could come up with a plan to create the home they needed. “We met with a variety of builders and they came over and said ‘No way. It can’t be done,’ because of our footprint and the cinderblock foundation,” said Bill. A neighbor was working on a renovation with Patriot Builders, so the Fords decided to give them a call and apparently it was a good call. “We finally felt comfortable with Chris (Childs) because he clearly knew what he was doing,” he said.

Chris Childs, a vice president and part-owner of Patriot Builders, realized immediately that, in order to provide the Fords with the home they wanted, the house had to go.

“They said ‘We want a large kitchen, living room and dining room and five bedrooms; what can you do?’ and the easy answer was to tear it down,” said Childs. Because of the size of the lot, just 18,000 square feet, the only way to give Bill and Kathy that much house was to build up. Childs explained, “The structural integrity of the house just wasn’t capable of supporting a second story.”

Another critical issue in the decision to tear down rather than renovate was the need to deal with the current building codes. When doing minor improvements on a structure, meeting current code requirements may not be necessary, but in a remodel of this scale, every aspect of the structure would need modernizing. Childs explained that it would have been cost prohibitive to attempt to bring the Fords’ aging home, built in 1952, up to code.

He first presented the Fords with hand-drawn sketches depicting a home with the details they had requested; an undulating roofline with multiple dormers and various pitches. By creating a large center hallway and staircase, Childs was able to work in the five bedrooms needed to accommodate six grandchildren. This staircase is now one of the most striking architectural elements in the house.

“Chris said we had to have the big center hall if we wanted to get the number of bedrooms we were looking for,” said Bill.

And Kathy, who acknowledged that the hall actually took space away from the bedrooms, feels that this design element is “respectful of the grandness of the home.”

The Fords wanted one large open space along the waterview side of the house; a living area, dining area, and kitchen-adjacent gathering area. Childs added his own imprint by including coffered ceilings and paneled columns to define the spaces.

At the center of the kitchen, designed by Roomscapes, formerly Kitchen Concepts, in Norwell, is a large butcher-block topped island with a narrow trough sink from Kohler in its center. The island, designed and custom-made by Lewis & Weldon, was Kathy’s idea. “I designed this kitchen for how we live, meaning we all stand around and cook, so we needed a place for multiple adult cooks to gather,” she said.

Kathy has a good eye for interior design. She came up with a color scheme using lots of deep, almost charcoal, grays and gray-blue shades. She is also a big fan of the ‘high-low’ trend so hot in home décor these days; the idea of mixing pricey with mass-produced. In the master bedroom, “The bed is very expensive and the nightstands are cheap,” said Kathy, who likes “the mix of stuff.”

After already having most of the larger pieces in place, Kathy worked with decorator Bernadette Porthier of The Real Deal Designs to pull together some artwork and decorative items to give the house a more cohesive, lived-in feel.

The Fords ended up with exactly the house they wanted. A recent family gathering had multiple children playing within view of the parents and grandparents, all gathered around the kitchen’s island prepping dinner and sipping wine, and “We weren’t crawling all over each other,” said Kathy.

Synchronicity on
the South Side

South Yarmouth Project - Design & Construction: Design Build Cape Cod

It took three boyhood buddies to create the Nantucket Sound-front home of John and Susan Caruso. Erik Tolley, Mike Nardone and Craig Whitten grew up within blocks of each other and all graduated from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.

Each went on to pursue his own passion. For Erik, it was becoming an architect and opening his firm, ERT Architects, Inc. Nardone started his own building company, M.J. Nardone Carpentry, L.L.C. And Craig Whitten ended up with the green thumb in the group; he founded Whitten Landscaping, Inc.

Two years ago, the guys decided to start sharing office space and form what they refer to as a collaborative: Design Build Cape Cod. Tolley pointed out that it wasn’t necessarily the fact that they went to school together that led the trio to pursue this concept – it’s more the professional respect they share for each other.

With every job, each firm bids independently on their specific portion and customers are permitted, if not encouraged, to seek out additional bids. “We are all separate businesses: in no way are customers forced to work with all three of us,” said Tolley.

Like the Fords, it was the arrival of the Carusos’ five grandchildren that led them to consider expanding their second home, purchased in 1994. “In 2006, I went down (to town hall) to see about putting in another bedroom and they said we needed a bigger septic, so we put that in,” said John.

“We found the septic person through town hall and when I suggested adding on, he said ‘Who’s doing the work?’ and then suggested Erik,” said Susan.

Tolley was in the process of designing a bigger living room, according to John, and he “…came by one winter day and found a pipe had burst in the upstairs bathroom,” he said. Apparently the furnace had shut down and the situation was so dire, “you could ice skate on the first floor; it was totally ruined,” said John.

The Carusos’ insurance company said the house was salvageable, but with John’s severe asthma, the couple realized that it was time to tear down.

“The insurance company said they could spray everything, spray the timbers and the walls, but I knew I was allergic to mold,” John explained. “We had to compare the cost of cleaning everything up, then putting on the addition and getting everything up to code.”

The Carusos had needs similar to the Fords when it came to designing a new home: a large open space combining living, dining and kitchen. And they wanted lots of bedrooms for their grandchildren.

One of John Caruso’s personal requests was “I wanted to walk in the front door and see the ocean.” Susan didn’t want people eating at the dining area table to feel exposed if people happened to walk in the front door. So Tolley came up with the idea of putting a granite-topped half wall just inside the door. John got his view and Susan got her cozy feeling.

Susan Caruso had a lot of ideas for the home’s interior and is thrilled with how things turned out. She chose the paint colors; from the crisp white in the great room, to café au lait in the boys’ bedroom, to beachy blue-green in the upstairs guest bath, as well as the tile throughout the house.

Mrs. Caruso was quick to mention the assistance she received from Design Build Cape Cod while working on the interior. “It was difficult to build from afar, but Mike made time for me every weekend and worked with me picking out what we needed for the next (phase),” she said. Barbara Darcy, the interior designer and CAD operator on staff with Tolley, also helped Susan navigate the décor process.

The finishing touches on the Caruso tear-down were Craig Whitten’s department. He suggested adding the unique wave pattern to the front walk, a manufactured product called Techo-Bloc Athena in Sandalwood. Whitten also came up with a low-maintenance high-color landscape relying heavily on native plantings which will thrive in the unforgiving waterfront location.

John summed up Whitten’s work rather succinctly. “We got the best damn landscaper on Cape Cod,” he said.

The Carusos’ simple plans to add on a little more living space started out as a nightmare, but once they realized they had no choice but build a new home, they both jumped in with both feet and ended up loving it.

“I wanted all of the kids to be comfortable here, for it to be a home,” said Susan. “I wanted a water shut-off valve I could easily reach,” said John with a chuckle. And that’s exactly what they got from Design Build Cape Cod. 

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