When old wants to meet new, it comes to Sketch.
The owners approached us with this 1960s bungalow they were looking to have renovated with add-ons. They wanted a Contemporary Style house plan for the property they had purchased in Barrie.
We knew exactly what we had to do to achieve that goal: build an open concept entertainment space, a master bedroom with an ensuite and large closets, a fully finished basement, and gorgeous decks that overlook a pristine backyard.
One of our aims when doing a renovation is to increase the value so that the owners can get a lucrative return on a resale if they choose to go that way.
The main challenge with older homes is low ceilings. Not even batting an eye at that issue, we used dynamic design to tweak the available attributes and add some height here and there inside the house.
In addition, the old brick bungalow, which was on an extra deep lot on a cul-de-sac, had no front entrance and the existing floor plans presented a very choppy and disjointed layout inside.
We jumped at the chance to do a bit of innovation. We moved the chimney off to the side and wrapped a new flat roof entrance structure around it. Just as the front changed, the rear was transformed, too, with a pool and cabana.
The existing roof was all hand cut, and that usually means there are internal weight-bearing walls. To make sure the structure wasn’t compromised, we used a lot of hidden beams in the ceiling. This also helped achieve that open-concept feeling we talked about earlier.
But all was not lost within the existing property. It had some classic features we could play with, such as the big chimney that took up most of the front façade.
