Everything here started with a wall that used to be outside. The addition was built off the existing stone elevation, so original masonry and its two window openings now stand as an interior feature. A new double-height volume rises beside it, framed in full-height glazing, with white oak flooring, an open oak stair, and a mezzanine gallery running above on steel balusters.
Clarity mattered more than decoration here. Glazing was concentrated on the garden side so daylight reaches the full height of the room, the stone was left unpainted to carry all the texture, and everything else stays pale so the two materials read clearly against each other.
Eight months on, the house gained a main living volume, a connected upper landing, and a wall of its history left visible.
The family asked for one thing above all, somewhere the whole household could sit together. A stone fireplace with a herringbone firebox anchors one end, flanked by a built-in bench seat with drawer storage beneath and floating oak shelves above. A low oak picture ledge runs the opposite wall, and the mezzanine looks down over all of it.
The layout came from watching how the old house failed. Seating was arranged in two facing runs rather than pushed to the walls, the bench doubles as storage and overflow seating, and the dining area sits just beyond so conversation carries between the two without a door in the way.
Handover covered a cleaned space, sealed stone and oak, adjusted glazing hardware, and a documented punch list closed inside a week.
