Innovative Architecture: Custom Family Homes From Country To City, River To Mountains
We are passionate about creating beautiful, functional, and sustainable spaces for our clients and creating buildings that are sensitive to their respective environments.
Here are some current project highlights which range from a family home in the country to rooftop entertainment in the city; a modern mountain abode to guest-ready river house. Each one is unique to the homeowners, but each one added a main level primary bedroom suite in the addition. In some cases, this is the sole reason the homeowners reached out to us!
Let’s take a closer look at four projects in the works.
THE COUNTRY
1. Green Acres: A Family Home Addition
The homeowner’s father built this modest cinderblock house on a rural stretch of Frederick County just outside the city. After retiring from the army, the homeowner and their spouse wanted to come home to this house to age-in-place. However, they knew that they would need to make some changes to the house to make it more accessible as they aged.
We designed a great room addition and a main level primary bedroom suite which would not overwhelm the existing house and maximized storage space by creating a guest room and storage room in the attic.
We used our “hyphen” technique of design to separate the new roof from the old roof, allowing the addition to be slightly taller than the main house. This created extra space for the laundry and pantry, as well as a transition area from the updated kitchen.
The front porch also got a facelift. A new gable roof and extended overhangs all around the original home adds charm.
The construction on this project is really starting to take shape!
In these ‘during’ pictures, the home is under construction and both the homeowners and General Contractor are super pleased with how the design is coming along.
"[DFC-LMA did the] hard work in developing the design for our addition...it feels like Christmas every day!! We are SOOOOOO glad you helped us find our builder. We are beyond pleased and most grateful."
Second photo: Detail of the overbuild of the new roof overhangs on the original house. Look at the old “aluminum foil” type insulation which was used in the ’50s to cover cinder blocks!
Third photo: Homeowners are often surprised by how much insulation is now required by code in our roofs! Here you can see how an extra 2×4 is installed at the underside of the top chord of the truss to make room for over 14″ of fiberglass batt insulation!
Forth photo: Here you can see the whole attic room truss and how it works! By boxing out the center of the truss and reinforcing the bottom chord, you end up with a small room!
THE CITY
2. The Barton House: A Historic Home Expansion
In the image above, on the right is the historic property, circa 1900, our homeowners quickly realized was too modest for their needs as a multi-generational family. By combining with the vacant lot next to this property, we were able to design a sizable addition to fit the homeowners’ busy lifestyle and family needs — all within walking distance of downtown Winchester. From this view (above), you can see we kept the addition looking unostentatious (to not overshadow the historic house) by designing a flat roof over the main level primary bedroom. This flat roof lead to a unique opportunity: a roof-deck space right in the heart of downtown!
From the private backyard, the addition encompasses both lots to include an extensive great room the smaller historic house was missing with room for family, dining, entertainment, and a brand new kitchen. Using this private yard as their primary entrance, the homeowners can make use of a practical mudroom on the left and enjoy a 2 story porch connecting the 3 bedrooms upstairs.
THE RIVER
3. Cacapon View: A Custom Home for the River
These homeowners were struggling to find a river front home design that fit their needs and budget. They found a set of schematic plans online that they liked, but they knew that they would need to make some changes.
They contacted us and we were able to connect with the original architect to discuss some of the proposed changes to the design. Together with our clients, we worked on a custom design that met their specific requirements for guests, an office and LOTS of river-level bulk storage (think canoes and kayaks!). We added a guest wing of bedrooms that connected to the main house through a river-facing screened porch. We also added larger windows to take advantage of the stunning views (and even of the “fairy roof” shelter in their backyard).
The home is located on the Cacapon River, a beautiful and scenic river but – as most rivers are – prone to flooding. We designed the home to be built on piers, protecting the riverbank and the home.
We also made some adjustments to the construction techniques to fit more efficiently with the homeowner’s budget. We used a combination of traditional and modern construction methods to create a home that is both beautiful and affordable.
"Leesa Mayfield and team are talented architects that know how to work with clients to make key design decisions. We worked together to adapt the design of a modern-style cabin with great success. The communication and client interface was seamless and the project was executed in a timely way. We highly recommend this team!"
THE MOUNTAINS
4. Valley View: An Accessibility Renovation
This unique cedar-sided home started as a vacation home. Our clients want this to be a forever home but after sustaining injuries that required 18 months of rehabilitation, their home needed a fully accessible addition. We designed an addition which allows this homeowners to comfortably live now – and age in place – with a main level bedroom suite to ADA specifications.
After just a few quick weeks of design-work this summer to get the homeowners’ wants and needs property documented into Permit Drawings, they are about to break ground on this modern mountain top home addition we’re calling Valley View. Though we’ve nearly doubled the footprint our client’s living space, the addition feels right at home with the surrounding landscape and unique house-forms, taking full advantage of the stunning mountain views and balancing privacy for this main level bedroom suite.
We maximized the natural light in the home by widening key existing windows to the greatest size allowed by the structural beam, integrating skylights, and building well-placed windows into the addition,
"Thank you...for all your thoughtful work and effort on our addition project. You have really helped us coalesce our initial ideas into a real floor plan that we’re both excited about. It is such a good feeling to have finally reached this point after having mauled this thing around in our heads for the last year and a half."
