Houzz Tour: Reviving a Farmhouse in California’s Wine Country
Tucked atop a knoll overlooking a valley ringed with vineyards, this Healdsburg, California, vacation home is both commanding and quietly humble — a case where the view is far more exalted than the house that looks out to it.
Tidy and white and drenched in sunshine, the 1,680-square-foot farmhouse was built in the late 1800s. But time had not been kind to the structure, and when the present owner found it three years ago, it was riddled with dry rot; the porch, roof and foundation needed replacing; and the cloistered interior included a bedroom with a toilet in the middle.
“It was literally falling apart,” says architectural designer George Bevan of Bevan & Associates in nearby Sonoma. “It needed a lot of love.”
Despite the home’s problems, the 5-acre property had a tranquility that appealed to the owner, an advertising executive from San Francisco. “She just wanted a place where she could roll up, drop her bags and be a world away,” says Bevan.
BEFORE:
After more than a century, the home had known only two owners. “It was all original,” says Bevan. “It was untouched. It was truly a time capsule.”
Unfortunately, the rickety interior was all chopped up and closed in, limiting light and vistas and not accommodating today’s more informal lifestyle.
AFTER: Working with contractor Thomas Trainor, Bevan removed the dilapidated porch, which was shading much of the interior, and replaced the windows, hewing closely to the proportions of what was there before.
Although the siding was in comparatively great shape, the house was built in the days before building paper and moisture barriers, a scenario that didn’t bode well for the future. So Bevan replaced the siding with new redwood, which he had custom milled to replicate the proportions of the old siding.
Bevan combined the old kitchen, pantry and breakfast nook to form the new kitchen. Opening up the rooms, he says, actually worked with the structure and let the house “breathe.” Removing the old porch flooded the kitchen with light and views, which were enhanced by the addition of transoms at the original window openings. The designer replaced the battered beadboard ceiling and added coffers to break up the plane and lend a sense of scale.
Since there wasn’t room for both an island and a dining table, he opted for the latter, relegating the cooking area to the room’s perimeter. The Crate & Barrel farmhouse table is so dominant, it’s become the focus of all the activities of the owner’s daily life — not just dining.
Continue reading Houzz Tour: Reviving a Farmhouse in California’s Wine Country
Houzz Tour: Reviving a Farmhouse in California’s Wine Country
