Queen Village Rowhouse
This project, featured in the Haven section of the Philadelphia Inquirer, was a labor of love for our clients and Buckminster Green. We completed this whole house renovation over 12 years, beginning when our company was only three years old. We had a sympathetic relationship in terms of design, and it is heartening that they kept returning to us, and that over the course of four phases, we were able to bring this couple’s dreams to fruition. Phase 1 included a master bathroom. Phase 2, restoring original floors and another bathroom. Phase 3 was an exterior renovation, focused on re-pointing the 200 year old brick, replacing windows, and creating a patio space with a fence designed to reduce sound from Queen St. Phase 4 was a full remodel of the 1st floor and lower level. We replaced an awkward spiral stair with an open stair made from salvaged wood, tiled the floors, and added a skylight to bring in more natural light. On the first floor we removed a powder room which allowed the kitchen to expand, removed large soffits, and raised the head height of the kitchen window to bring in more light. Salvaged wood open shelving and a Smeg refrigerator add to the kitchen’s eclectic feel. And our client’s really do keep their open shelves looking photo shoot ready. We didn’t change a thing the day we showed up to take pictures!
Update: We finished lower level and first floor parts of this project shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. Our clients were both teaching classes from home on Zoom during this period, and they wrote us this note:
"As you can imagine, we've never appreciated this house and your work more...The kitchen, living room and patio renovations are still a joy to us every day. We can't believe what an improvement to our use of each space the work has been. Our students...are more interested in seeing the kitchen than the cats during our video lessons. That's saying something."
