Project Description
Priorities
- Update a circa 1891 homestead in the Texas hill country. Existing
conditions: a crude kitchen and a makeshift bathroom; stairs on the
exterior of the building; a freestanding gas stove as the only heat
source - Repurpose and modernize the living and kitchen space while respecting the pioneer home’s roots
Solutions
The fifth generation of a family had been
living in this homestead until the current owners purchased it and
enlisted designer Richard Laughlin to remodel it.
Laughlin’s crew
cleaned and repointed the stones, which had been quarried on site in
the 1800s, and gutted the interior leaving the stone walls and second
floor platform intact. They reclaimed and recycled as much as they could
or used historical light fixtures and salvaged doors and lumber to give
the project a period feel.
The crew installed a new
standing-seam metal roof and “laid wood shingles on the porches and
outbuildings to provide a historic feel while reducing glare in the
second floor windows,” Laughlin says. The second floor got a new master
suite and an interior staircase. To open the kitchen the team created
arched openings in the 18-inch-thick solid stone walls.
Judges’ comments
“They saved this house from … rotting away and they were meticulous
in bringing it back to its original condition. It was a farmstead and it
still feels like a farmstead. It’s true to its original feel, as if it
could have survived [in this way] the whole time.”
Products
- Bath cabinets: custom
- Bath fixtures:Kohler
- Countertops: granite
- Dishwasher:Bosch
- HVAC:Trane
- Oven/range/refrigerator:GE Appliances