Expanding the Heart of the Home

This family–an integral part of the local theater community–hosts not just family celebrations but whole casts and crews in their Woodstock bungalow home!

The Project at a Glance

Looking at the backyard and exterior of a bungalow house. The Woodstock Bungalow backyard and rear of the house before construction.
Exterior of new construction added to Bungalow. The addition to the rear of the home contains a new living room to the left and a new office to the right.

Project Type

House Type

1.5-Story Bungalow

Scope

Whole Home Exploration/Remodel/Addition

Location

Woodstock Neighborhood, SE Portland, Multnomah County

Budget

Timeline

Project Kickoff, Feb. 2021; Phase 1 Construction, Sept. 2022; Phase 2 Construction, May, 2024; Finished, Fall, 2024

Project Narrative

The homeowners have lived in this bungalow for a number of years and are very involved in children’s theater programming in Portland. They also have two kids living at home and have hosted wrap parties, set-painting work sessions, line reads and many other family celebrations in their skinny galley kitchen and compact living areas. The home had already had some minor additions in the course of its life: a casual dining nook and side-door access to the back yard was tacked on to the rear of the kitchen. The kitchen itself was an upgrade to cabinetry and surfaces by the last homeowner which looked okay but was quite basic and still very constrained by the available layout.

In the course of our work together, they actually wanted to explore a lot of ideas about their property, wondering about ADUs, converting more of the basement to living space, whether a second story made more sense, and how their kitchen could be updated or improved given how tight the available space.

Wants & Needs

  • Better kitchen function and flow
  • Entertainment space for family and friends
  • Office space

A Few Options Explored

  1. We covered the gamut of ideas for this property and spent a significant amount of time discussing whether it made sense to add an ADU to future-proof for adult children continuing to live at home or other non-traditional living arrangements. We looked at adding an ADU in the back yard or digging out an additional basement to create a new one under an addition.
  2. The upper level of the house was a converted attic space changed into a primary suite with a dormer addition and changes to the stair by a prior owner. We looked at whether a proper full second level would get them additional working space on the main floor to do more things with.
  3. A detached garage with access to the alley was also considered. It is used as a workshop and supports many build activities associated with theater prop and scenery making. Could this space be converted to an ADU and/or do both?

We went with option C.

What Did We Do?

We delved into the above options–and more–in the course of our exploration phase and even got some ballpark numbers for the bigger ideas. Budget was an issue and it was so important to balance ideas about future use with the needs and expenses of today!

Ultimately, we coalesced on a main floor expansion off the back of the house which would give the homeowners additional living area while also expanding the kitchen enough to turn it into more of an entertainment space with a lot more work area and storage.

Through the iterative process, we really dialed in the features we wanted and created a natural flow from kitchen to entertaining area with a sizable peninsula and bar seating, serving both the kitchen cooking zone and the living room entertainment zone. Additionally, we slotted in a gorgeous home office which freed space inside the home and in the detached garage/workshop for other uses.

The new living area easily accommodates family gatherings for holidays and special events as well as a whole theater troupe. It has amazing south-facing windows and doors which fill the vaulted space with light and warmth. The family dogs have loved lounging in front of the french doors since the first day they were put in during construction.

We did a phased approach with this project. Phase 1 built the living area addition with the office and opened an area next to the kitchen. The area originally envisioned for the big kitchen peninsula temporarily housed a nice big work/dining table. We carefully located electrical and lighting to work for either scenario, not knowing when the kitchen Phase 2 would actually happen! As it turns out, it was just a few months past the holidays when they decided they did want that new kitchen after all and would push forward.

We regrouped on the kitchen design, made a few tweaks to support the work that was completed in Phase 1 and the homeowners did quite a lot of sourcing and building of their own kitchen elements in Phase 2. The result is so gorgeous, fits with the house perfectly, and they saved a lot of money by doing so much themselves.

Why did We Choose This Option?

The ideas about ADUs and flexible multi-generational living were good ones, but the price tag for these areas can be pretty high. It’s important to have a real plan for how those kinds of spaces are going to be used. The high cost factor eliminated these and the homeowners feel good about that choice.

Adding a second story is also a high cost and complexity job. Second stories have enormous impact on first floor layouts (Where does the stair go? Why is it so dang big?) and can be structurally complex. The engineering affects on the overall structure have cost impacts that aren’t as apparent when you’re dreaming of the spaces that it could create. 

We removed the prior addition that was tacked on to the kitchen. While it obviously made sense to whoever put that on, it was not well-proportioned and looked better than it actually functioned. The desire to spread out and have big gatherings just wasn’t supported elsewhere in the home, so removing this addition and putting the new living area there was real bang for the buck.

Being able to appreciably affect the size and flow and enjoyment of the kitchen while keeping locations of the plumbing intact was a huge win. It would have been very hard to make the function and flow work better without moving into either the existing addition or adding on. The kitchen also became the big transition point between old and new and these homeowners did an amazing job with that.

We came to PDX Additions with a lot of big ideas but no clear direction. We explored everything from basement and garage ADUs to various home layouts before finally settling on a 450 sq ft living room and office addition with a kitchen remodel. Amanda was incredibly patient with us throughout the entire brainstorming phase. She listened to all of our many ideas and was always open and honest about the real-world feasibility of each option. Large remodels can be stressful, but Amanda’s calm, professional approach and timely communication made things feel easy. Her skill and design expertise completely transformed our home. Our home now fits our family and lifestyle perfectly. We highly recommend her!

C. & E.S., SE Portland

Credits

Design

Amanda Erickson, PDX Additions, LLC

Interior Design Studio

Sarah Leoni, PDX Additions, LLC

Builder

Derek Brown, Crystal Remodeling

Engineering

Grummel Engineering