The Addition to the Addition

Lower Heidelberg, PA

The Addition to the Addition

The homeowner was in the early stages of a renovation project, adding a small addition with a new entrance to the house. The site, though small, had many challenges to overcome; there was an existing set of steps with deteriorating treads, retaining walls with broken caps, an aging asphalt driveway and the height of the new door in relation to its surroundings.

It was important to this homeowner to finish this busy space with a tasteful blend of traditional materials and compliment the new addition with some type of walkway and landing. The property had a significant amount of flagstone and natural landscape and they wanted to continue that theme with the new project.

By far the biggest design hurdle for this project was taking so many fixed grades in a very small space and blending them seamlessly with style. I felt the traditional appearance of the home with classic white siding, large white columns and black shutters screamed for traditional hardscape materials; pattern-cut flagstone, bluestone treads and sandstone veneered pillars. To deal with the height of the new door I created two elongated rectangular landings that included matching veneer stone to the pillars. We topped the existing retaining walls with light grey stone caps and the steps where given new bluestone treads to match the new landings. The existing driveway edge was in poor shape so we decided to remove and replace a portion with new cobblestone pavers to help blend the new with the old. The final piece of the project, the new custom made hand rail, serves both as an aesthetic feature and safety measure. Low volt lighting in the new landings and stone pillars creates a warm and inviting entrance even at night.