Home of the Week: Major surgery to get back to the bones
Kate Prevedello struggled with how much of the old to keep, always wanting to preserve the house’s Arts and Crafts aesthetic.
Ms. Prevedello has built several new homes, including an ultra-modern home on nearby Robert St., but 27 Wells Hill presented a new challenge: revitalizing a beautiful house without losing its sense of history or its external façade. “Even though the house was very well kept, very clean, everything inside of it was old,” says Ms. Prevedello. “The floors were all drooping, everything was sagging, but the bones were well maintained.”
Once the bones were bare, Ms. Prevedello reinforced them, replaced the wooden joists with steel ones and replaced the radiator heating system with forced air. She also opened up a lot of the spaces. On the main floor, she removed some walls to create a large, warm space that connects the living room, dining room, kitchen and family room.
Even with the decision to go completely new on the inside, Ms. Prevedello paid homage to the original design with small details, such as the warm oak hardwood flooring, the handcrafted Algonquin and Escarpment stones in the front foyer and the square archway bridging the living room to the dining room. Ms. Prevedello describes this blended style as “transitional” – not quite contemporary but not totally traditional either.
The best features Ms. Prevedello also gave the backyard a facelift. The native plants that were overgrown and consuming the back half of the long, narrow property were trimmed back.. Ms. Prevedello also added a walkout cedar terrace on the third floor and a spacious deck on the main floor.
The master suite takes full advantage of the beauty in the backyard with a picture window that runs almost the full length of the wall.