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TOWERING SUCCESS

Shaker design sense and a rooftop tower turn this bland 1970s house into a home worthy of heirloom status.

DESIGN BY JEFF NELSON

CONSTRUCTION BY CHATHAM BUILDING & DESIGN

TEXT BY DAVE HOLBROOK

COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK WISEMAN

The real estate ad read "location, location, location", and, indeed, a one-day, Open House showing in 2003 of this circa 1973 dormered Cape-style home in Dennis attracted six seriously interested buyers. In the end, the current homeowners' bid prevailed.

Situated about two-tenths of a mile from deeded beach rights on Cape Cod Bay, the existing house had neither significant structural problems nor much to commend its plain-vanilla design. A water view, only partly glimpsed from the second floor, stretches from Provincetown to the Sandwich bluffs. In fact, a home inspector hired by the homeowners pointed out the full extent of the view following his rooftop inspection and got the new owners thinking about adding a widow's walk to take better advantage of it. A more pressing priority not addressed by the existing floor plan was the need to accommodate the couple and their six children. The existing 2,200 square feet wouldn't meet the demand. So, without ever moving into their new home, they began the search for a remodeler.

With a better idea of what they didn't want than what they did, the homeowners considered preliminary design proposals from two respected design-build firms before consulting Jeff Nelson of Chatham Building and Design and taking a tour of one of his company's recently completed homes. What they saw struck them immediately as what they'd been unable to articulate: simple, classic, Shaker-derived elements that accommodate contemporary living with timeless character and practical details. Nelson has honed his specialized approach to residential design during his 28 years in residential building and remodeling, drawing upon his observation of traditional methods and his formal schooling in architectural design. “"Many of the details I've adapted come from taking old houses apart and seeing how those old builders put things together,"” Nelson says. The distillation of his experience captures the essential charm of many a historical Cape home, but with the comfort and advantages of modern space planning.

Square footage previously devoted to an attached garage gave way to living space in the new design. This required the demolition of a good portion of the existing structure. A full-basement foundation under the new wing replaced the old garage slab and joined the existing poured-concrete basement, providing plenty of below-grade storage and space potential.

In the remaining structure, Nelson found some floor framing in need of reinforcement. Elsewhere, existing structural irregularities drove the decision to add a layer to an area of existing wood flooring in order to make a flush transition between wood and tile floors, an example of unforeseen cost added to the job. Natural stone floor tile requires an exceptionally stiff floor - twice that specified for ceramic tile - because it's more brittle and prone to cracking if not properly supported.

THE TOWER
A prominent and striking feature in the redesigned roofline is the tower room that stands at the right-angle junction between the main roof ells. Because the home sits in a historic district, approval of the exterior design was required; the tower room raised a debate and just scraped through board approval, moving from a tied vote to a favorable 3-to-1 decision after a couple of on-the-spot design modifications. You'd never miss them in the final design, which rests comfortably in shingled style from both front and rear perspectives.

The tower concept grew out of the widow's walk discussion. Nelson discouraged the idea of building an open widow's walk for the simple reason, he says, “"they don't get used."” The room was originally designed as a regular 10- by 10-foot square, but Richard, an orthopedic surgeon, wanted to lengthen the room on one axis, specifically to allow him to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of a hammock. In fact, extending the tower's dimensions to 10 by 13 feet actually helped to resolve a design problem, that of integrating the tower gracefully into the rear roof intersection and adjacent second-story walls. The end result speaks for itself, adding dramatic style to the rear elevation at an otherwise awkward and unadorned junction.

The tower is reached from the master bedroom and an adjacent guest room situated on the second floor, giving it some exclusivity from the home's common spaces. Its interior is elegantly finished in mahogany bead board and clear mahogany trim, showing off some advanced carpentry skills and tasteful proportions in the small space. The tower is, after all, a tower, and access is via a stair of unusual, alternating-tread design. A working prototype ironed out intangible design decisions such as proper tread height and, more important, which leg to lead with when descending. This might not seem to matter, but the tower's stair is of necessity at right angles to the upper landing rather than fronting it.

THE KITCHEN

The kitchen is a beautiful tribute to the calming, homey goodness of this building style. The cabinetry is built right in place, unlike the fixed-dimension plywood and particleboard boxes one otherwise buys to roughly fill the lineup. There are at least two reasons for building cabinets in place: First, that's the only way they used to be made and you can't buy a kitchen like this down at the big-box building supply; and second, if you could and did, you'd have preempted the flexibility and serendipity of using existing space exactly the way you decide. The look of the site-built kitchen comes straight out of every old Cape home you've ever loved, where traditional cabinetry grew and changed to suit the user and the room.

In this kitchen, wall cabinets mix open shelving and concealed storage. Rather than crowding the sink window, the cabinets are held back to allow more light to enter, the resulting spaces bridged with simple and decorative corner shelves. Laid out in practical workstations, the clear, wide-pine cabinets follow traditional lines and feature delicate edge-bead treatments that not only supply a subtle decoration but also protect otherwise sharp corners from dents and damage. 

Painted inside and out in a continuation of the general door, window and base trim color, the cabinets truly become an irreplaceable, key component in the home's ambience.

The countertops are finished in Brazilian soapstone that required multiple trips to the supplier for selection. Soapstone is a highly workable material that can actually be cut and worked using conventional woodworking tools, a characteristic that's been exploited for hundreds of years to make, among other things, the original farmhouse sinks.

The new addition actually stepped the building back from the lot line relative to where the garage entrance had been. In its place is a laundry and mudroom side entry, the traditional “working door" in a typical Cape home. (Bona-fide locals know not to knock at the front entry.) Beyond the laundry is a roomy walk-in pantry, both with stone tile floors that will never wear out or look dated. The pantry naturally opens to the kitchen, the typical first stop in most homecomings. It's a very logical, practical progression of spaces.

Communication between the homeowners and Nelson took place largely by telephone and e-mail, as well as via a dedicated virtual job folder on Nelson’s company web site, chathambuildinganddesign.com.

Accessible by password, the site enabled the homeowners to review material selections, structural conditions demanding decisions and weekly progress on the job. “This system has been working extremely well for us, and we’re still tweaking it and making improvements,” says Nelson, who regularly photo-documents his projects for reference.

On the home’s second floor, Nelson laid poplar planks tightly together, repairing imperfections in the lumber with epoxy filler before sanding the floors to a smooth, even plane, ready for painting. The floors received a traditional New England “spattered” finish, a decorative combination of complementary colored paint dots literally spattered onto a painted field color at random. This kind of finish takes a day or two longer than a urethane finish to harden sufficiently for foot traffic, but delivers good service life, relatively casual maintenance and tons of local flavor.

Nelson places true thresholds (beveled-edge board atop the flooring) across his interior door openings. “Everyone’s forgotten about thresholds,” he says, “but you’ve got to have them there to give the door clearance over scatter rugs.” With the door closed, there’s no gap between its bottom edge and the floor, enhancing privacy and giving the opening a truly finished look. Once you notice thresholds, other doorways look somehow incomplete without them.

The homeowners quickly became comfortable enough with Nelson’s vision and methods to give him relatively free rein with the details. Nelson determined nearly all the home’s interior and exterior details, from the height of a wainscot paneling section to full floor, wall and ceiling surface treatments, built-in cabinets and shelving, niches, moldings, window and door trim, and much more. “We’ve been surprised and delighted with the entire process, and with the progress,” the homeowner says.

Nelson worked on a cost-plus basis within a projected $500,000 budget and pitted his energies against a firm completion date of May 15. However, builder and client determined that they’d be making opportunistic design changes on the fly and that the budget would have to tolerate vertical adjustments. The homeowners say they plan to leave the home to their children and grandchildren to enjoy, making the somewhat open-ended aspect of the job’s final cost more palatable.

At ground level, wide pine plank flooring, beamed ceilings and pine trim connect the rooms to one another with attentive craftsmanship in evidence everywhere. It’s the reliance on the wood, simply defined and expertly fitted, that anchors the ambience in stylish, casual comfort. There’s a sense of heritage, and of being cradled in a great wooden basket, lending an overall sense not merely of house, but of home.


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