Jeff Stevens took the familiar nostalgia of visiting one’s childhood neighborhood to the next level when he moved his own family back to the Washington, D.C., area.
“We rented a house on the same street where I lived in the 1970s and 1980s,” said Stevens, 50, who works in finance and accounting for a fiber-optic company.
He and his wife, Kim Stevens, moved from Austin, Texas, to the D.C. suburb Arlington, Virginia, and rented until eventually purchasing a house on that same block. The Stevenses, along with their kids, who are 13 and 16, anticipated staying in the property at least 10 years or longer, so instead of taking a piecemeal approach to renovations, they hired designer Michael Winn, owner of Winn Design + Build in nearby McLean.
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“The house needed a lot of work, especially because the owners, who had lived there for 50 years, had done a lot of DIY work and tried to make the Mid-Century Modern house look Colonial,” Jeff said. “But we saw the potential and thought it could be cool.”
In the kitchen, a vaulted ceiling with exposed beams, including structurally necessary collar ties, create visual separation from adjacent rooms and is aesthetically pleasing, Jeff said.
“We love entertaining, and the previous layout of this house was choppy,” said Kim Stevens, 48, an educator. “With the new layout, we can see from the front to the back of our house, but we still have clearly defined spaces on the main level. It’s very inviting, open but still cozy.”
One challenging piece of the renovation was to remove the massive brick fireplace that once dominated the main living area. The Stevenses painted it white before the renovation, but the room remained dark even with its former bay window.
“Michael envisioned the whole back of the house with a wall of glass doors and relocated the fireplace to another wall with a custom entertainment center,” Kim said. “The wood on the entertainment center matches wood in other parts of the house, including a vertical divided wall at the entrance that allows light to filter through.”
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Even the baseboards were custom made by Winn to be consistent throughout the house.
As the project progressed, Winn and his team found issues that needed substantial work.
“The sunroom had to be removed because it was structurally unsound and would have cost about $60,000 to fix,” Jeff said. “But now the kids’ bedrooms and the basem*nt have more light without it.”
An uninsulated, never used storage area behind the garage was transformed into a functional home office, which allowed the previous home office to be converted to a mudroom.
“The garage was a DIY from the previous owner and when they pulled it apart to add insulation, they discovered some paper on the walls that was labeled highly flammable,” Kim said. “Naturally we replaced all that, along with the gas line to the old fireplace, which was propped up underneath the house on an old tire.”
The Stevenses spent more than $600,000 on their renovation, which Jeff said is about what they paid for the property. In addition to the new kitchen and open main level, renovations included a new roof, siding, masonry repair, insulation, a heating and air conditioning system, and electrical and gas upgrades.
“We looked at other homes that didn’t need renovation and never found anything else we liked,” Kim said. “Being able to make this home ours was worth going over our budget. Plus, this house has single floor living so we can age in place in the future or sell it to someone who wants to age in place.”
The Stevenses and Winn offered some more insight into their project and advice for others, below.
I would describe the aesthetic as… “consistent with Mid-Century Modern design,” Kim said. “We wanted to make it feel somewhat timeless and yet clearly built in the 1960s.”
My advice to others… “Have a clear idea of the overall finished product you want but allow room to accept ideas from the architect and their team,” Jeff said. “Also, if you’re remodeling an older home, be prepared for surprises with the original structure that may need to be addressed.”
The biggest surprise was… “the extent of the structural challenges we encountered, especially in the sunroom and garage areas,” Winn said. “These issues required significant alterations to our initial plans but addressing them allowed us to enhance the home’s safety, efficiency and overall functionality.”
My favorite post-renovation featureis… “the kitchen and mudroom cabinets that allow us to keep a much cleaner home,” Kim said. “I especially love the cabinet that hides the microwave, coffee mugs, beans, grinder and toaster oven.”
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The most dramatic change was… “the rear living area in the house used to be dark and cut off from the kitchen,” Kim said. “Now it’s a connected space flooded with natural light and with views of the backyard.”
A favorite material we discovered during the processwas… “the exposed collar ties used in the kitchen,” Winn said. “This element not only served a structural purpose but also became a striking aesthetic feature, contributing to the home’s unique character.”
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