historic renovations and modern constructions

in private homes

Smokehouse Restoration

  • We restored or replaced the logs with salvaged logs from other buildings
  • We made an authentic chinking mixture using clay, straw, sand, and lime.

Home Renovation

  • this is the second home we have renovated for this family
  • complete gut and renovation with a modern design
  • Bulthaup style cabinetry using anigre and walnut veneers
  • we are added a sunroom addition with new doors and windows.
  • completely new mechanical systems

Slave Quarters Restoration, Freedman’s Home

  • Restoration of an 18th century stone foundation
  • Re-built on foundation, being as true to what was there as we could.  
  • All of the existing wood was reconstruction era, which was surprising.  This was determined using dendrochronology.  

Home Renovation – built circa 1790 

  • We are working with Ken Livingston, of Main Street Architecture – Berryville, VA
  • House is called ‘The River House’, as it used to be the toll keeper’s house at the Shenandoah River crossing.
  • We did some needed foundation and mechanical system repairs around the perimeter and in the lower level.
  • We rebuilt both the front and back porches
  • See more pictures here.

New home addition and renovation of current home – original part built circa 1800’s

  • We worked with architect John Massie.
  • We renovated the 1940’s addition and added an addition, keeping with the style of the rest of the early 1800’s house.
  • The project entailed reproducing early 1800’s trim from the original stone house
  • Added three bathrooms and a laundry room
  • Added a concrete and brick floored porch on stone piers with traditional roof details.

New Pool House, stone retaining walls, patios, a pergola with an outdoor kitchen, gazebo, and a  swimming pool 

  • Built a pool house. The pool house is set into a hillside, with its construction being reinforced concrete, steel, and wood framing.  It has been faced with brick.  It is traditional in design, by David Ganse, a local architect.  He uses very old school construction methods, which agree with our sensibilities.
  • Built a breezeway, patios and retaining walls for a private home The walls are all reinforced concrete, with 8” stone shelves, and faced with solid stone.
  • Built a pergola with a kitchen underneath
  • Built gazebo

New Shingle Style Addition on an 18th century barn turned into a house.  

  • Added an addition designed by Rob Hale, of a Lutyens design
  • shingle style
  • tile roof
  • copper guttering
  • many complex and interesting details.

Restoration of late 1700s log cabin

  • Preserved an early log cabin by raising it, and re-building its stone foundation.  We used lime mortar for all of the daubing replacement, after repairing the log rot.
  • Kitchen renovation in this beautiful Federal house. The kitchen was a complete renovation, replace our traditional cabinetry, with inset doors and drawers, topped with Carrera marble counters.
  • Shutter replacement and repair
  • Porch renovations, lime mortar tidying, mechanical system upgrades, etc

Log Cabin Restoration 

  • Restored the exterior of a log cabin.
  • Dealt with rot repair using epoxies
  • Re chinked/daubed the exterior to replace the damaged Portland cement
  • Used historic lime mortar

Little Oatlands – Leesburg, VA

  • Complete renovation and restoration, under the tax credit program, to a historic house/store at Little Oatlands.
  • kitchen restoration
  • windows restoration
  • complete mechanical replacement

1740 ‘The Old Mansion’ – Bowling Green, VA
This job consisted of an ongoing project on ‘The Old Mansion’, located in Bowling Green. Dendrochronology was performed by an English company, and the date of the house was determined to be 1740. It is a fascinating house in that much of its original details have been retained.

  • Preserved and restored window components,
  • Installation of Allied storm windows.
  • Rot repair
  • Structural repairs
  • Flooring repairs using reclaimed heart pine
  • Replaced the basement windows and jambs
  • Some masonry repairs using wood burned lime mortar
  • Added a kitchen
  • Many other projects.

Late 1700s  Federal House Renovation and Log Cabin Preservation

  • Complete kitchen renovation
  • built traditional kitchen cabinetry
  • Inset doors and drawers
  • Carrera marble counters
  • Shutter replacement and repair
  • Porch renovation
  • Lime mortar tidying
  • Mechanical system upgrades
  • Preserved log cabin
  • Raised log cabin
  • Re-built cabin’s stone foundation
  • Repaired log rot
  • Used lime mortar for all daubing replacement

1800s stone house renovation with late 1700s log cabin restoration. 

The job goal was to preserve the house, and restore its features back to the period of construction.

  • Complete house renovation included the reconstruction of the 3rd story dormers, attic, foyer,
  • Addition of new entry
  • reconstruction of 45 foot long porch along the front of the house
  • Restoration of the log cabin,
  • New roof, and re-pointing of all stonework to match the original.

1800s Highland Home (Built by the family of Robert E. Lee)

  • I was hired as a consultant to write a restoration plan for the home. The house is a beautiful Mansford Victorian home, about 6,000 square feet in size. the mechanical systems need to be brought up to date and there is extensive structural work that needs to be done to the lower story. We performed morter analysis, and found that much of the recent repointing of the old brick foundation was done with Portland cement causing negative side affects.

1895 Stone House Renovation-Winchester, VA

  • Slate roof work
  • Pointing
  • A myriad of millwork and carpentry details
  • A new kitchen
  • Updated the very old mechanical systems.

House Renovation – Winchester, VA

  • Whole house renovation. The job included a complete gut of the existing frame Victorian house, upgrading all systems, and adding an addition.

House Renovation

  • Renovated 3 bathrooms and 1 laundry room.
  • Steam shower,
  • Custom tile,
  • Custom built windows,
  • Custom built vanities
  • Custom built cabinetry
  • Stone countertops
  • Custom built shutters
  • Water proof paint

Addition of sunroom – Historic District, Leesburg, VA

  • Addition of a 15′ x 35′ sunroom
  •  11 doors with transoms filling the exterior walls
  • Custom cabinetry and built in bookshelves
  • Radiant hot water heat in the concrete floor
  • Porcelain tiles
  • Upper level has a flat copper roof overlain with mahogany deck boards
  • 4 custom skylights constructed of mahogany, glass, and copper on the floor above

1930s Arts and Crafts Kitchen renovation

  • Designed and executed a kitchen in a 1930s arts and crafts home, returning the details of the kitchen area that were lost in a prior renovation.
  • Turkish limestone floor set on a mud base, with radiant heating,
  • Oak millwork and panelling
  • Traditional cabinetry
  • Walnut furniture island
  • Carrera marble
  • Soapstone counters.

Kitchen renovation and a teak pergola – Middleburg, VA

Mid 19th century home and estate

  • Total renovation of an 800 square foot kitchen.
  • Total rewiring/ plumbing
  • New traditional mud-set tile installation
  • New cabinetry
  • Faux finishing
  • Commercial appliances
  • Bathroom renovation
  • Traditional wood trim
  • Constructed a new heart pine spiral staircase
  • Built a teak pergola

Attic Renovation

  • Complete renovation of the attic
  • Added a new bathroom
  • Added a turret.  We built the turret on the ground, and set it using a crane.

200 year old heart pine floor renovation/refinishing and porch renovation – Waterford, VA

18th century stone/wood home.

  • Patching of approximately 100 square feet of worn flooring. Since the original boards were hand made, each was tapered in width and of varying thickness. After patching, we hand scraped approximately 250 square feet of floor, including our new patches and refinished with tung oil.  Hand scraping allowed to the preservation of varying board thicknesses. Aggressive machine sanding would have been damaging.  Porch project consisted of re-framing part of existing, and re-flooring entirely with mahogany; finished with boat varnish.

Porch replica, new windows, and new shutters

  • Re-creation of a porch on a historic brick home, that had been removed in the 70’s.
  • Re-built the porch using old photographs, interpreting sizing and spacing by scaling known details in the pictures.
  • Mahogany flooring
  • Cedar trim and rail details
  • Copper gutters
  • Added and built four new windows for original window openings that had been sealed off
  • Built new exterior and interior shutters

 

Restoration of late 1800s timber frame corn crib barn.

  • Restoration of heavy timbers that were rotted due to grade changes around the barn caused by water flow. We re-made timber frame portions of the frame using new oak timbers to replace the old rotten hand-hewn ones. Most of the oak siding was replaced as well.