Old House My House

photo by Stephen Karlisch

[Ed. note: This is the first post from the homeowners of the newest TOH TV project, in Austin, Texas. To get a little background on this renovation-in-progress, click here.]

We launched our project on October 2. The house is a 1920's 2/1 Craftsman bungalow (meaning two bedrooms, one bathroom) in the historic Hyde Park District in Austin, north of the University of Texas campus. Michele has owned the house for 10 years, and I have owned my larger house in Northwest Hills, six miles away, for the same amount of time. When we got married last spring, we decided we would to add a second story to her house. We wanted to be near the center of town, where the houses are closer together, in a neighborhood where we could walk or bike to grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, parks and, of course, to our friends' houses.

We're downsizing, but that's good because we want to reduce our dependence on physical "things." We want to live a simpler lifestyle than the ones that seem to be more and more prevalent around us. We tend toward reducing consumption in general, so we really need a house that we can cool without using a lot of air conditioning. That means screened porches and windows and doors that we can open and leave open.

But that's not our only concern. We need to accommodate my two sons in the house, and a 2/1 bungalow is just not enough. Not only that, but we enjoy entertaining—and I like to cook—so a kitchen that lets us socialize during meal prep is important. So we're putting on an addition and redoing the kitchen.

We want the addition to seem like it's part of the original design of the house, so we've hired an architect with a portfolio that shows he knows how to maintain some stylistic integrity and be respectful of the neighborhood look and feel while still meet our space needs. David Webber provided a design for an 800 square foot addition to the 1500 square foot house that did this in a way that we think will work perfectly. Keep following our renovation, and you'll see what we mean.

—Michael