Recycled Cabin
the Story
This was an incredibly unique project for me. It started out as a first floor remodel with an addition. The clients’ home was an old war box and it had very tight small rooms. They wanted to open it up and move things around to make it more functional. We came up with a plan and had an addition to make more living and entertaining space. When we got into the feasibility study, we realized the addition would have to be dropped. However, we moved forward with the kitchen remodel. We changed the entry door, which instantly gave more space to their front room. We extended the kitchen and added an island for seating. To make room for the dining table, we designed a built-in bench. It all worked perfectly.
Then one day the clients called and said they found a cabin for sale and asked if they could move it to their backyard and use that as the addition? I was like you want to what!?! Turns out it was a cabin that was over 100 years old. It was going to get torn down to make room for a new multi-family building. The cabin was 19 blocks away, so it didn’t have to move that far. We took on the challenge. First thing to do was to figure out what the city had to say about it. Were they going to count this as existing or new construction, since it is new to the site? There was a lot to figure out. After some negotiation, the city agreed to let us do it. Next, we had to make sure it would fit with as-built measurements. After getting it all drafted up, we were able to find a way to make it line up perfectly. It was just 7” too tall. We figured it would be easiest to align it with the roof eaves so we sunk it down 7”, which actually made a nice step into the new living room.
Collaborators
Firm: Board & Vellum
Project Lead: Ryan Adanalian, Board & Vellum
Project Support: Katie Mallory, Board & Vellum
Contractor: Homeowner
Structural Engineer: Bykonen Carter Quinn
Photographer: T Spoon Photo