The Objective
The owners purchased their log cabin in 2011. As much as they loved the home, it didn’t function as they wanted. The uninspired kitchen overwhelmed the great room, and there was no room for a dining table. The dark primary suite was dated, from fixture to flow. The lower level was unfinished. The porch was small and uninviting. With a strong sense of their desired design and inspiration from their love of cooking and entertaining, the owners started sketching ideas to transform their log home into a modern mountain oasis.
Project Details
The Challenges
The owners wanted more square footage to move the kitchen, so an addition was always part of the plan. However, the home’s structure and wind shear at elevation presented challenges to their original idea for an addition.
1. Structural
The original idea was to cut through the exterior wall at the porch off the kitchen and absorb the porch square footage. This new square footage would allow the owners to move the kitchen area from a corner in the main living area into the new area. However structurally, it wouldn’t work. The new area needed to be bigger. Seeing the potential to remodel their home into exactly what they wanted, the homeowners went to work on a new idea.
The vision for their reimaged home idea involved adding on a new kitchen, a large, covered porch and expanded deck, a reconfigured main living area with space for a dining table, a reconfigured primary suite with an all-new walk-in closet and bathroom, a new powder room, gutting and reconfiguring the entire lower level, a new garage with home office addition, and an 4,000-gallon rainwater retention system to solve for low well-water pressure.
2. Wind Shear at Elevation
Adding complexity to the project was wind. Per local building codes for the home’s elevation, which is higher than 3,500 ft, the addition needed to withstand short bursts of 130 mph wind. Shear walls were incorporated in the new addition to prevent the home from twisting over time.
The porch roof, which could act as a kite in a high wind event, was designed and engineered to exceed code requirements. Building the porch roof was much like assembling a puzzle that required precision and expert craftsmanship.
The Transformation
Moving from its original location in a corner of the main living area, the new kitchen is now located where the old porch once stood, and was designed for someone who loves to cook and entertain.
Ample counterspace, a butler’s station, large windows, intentional lighting, and custom cabinetry anchor the space. A bar height island provides seating and a home for gadgets, such as the wine cooler, the microwave, and a drawer-mounted vacuum sealing station.
Every inch of the main living area was touched, resurfaced, or refinished. The wood ceilings were sanded and stained to match the rest of the trim. The decorative beams were painted for aesthetic. The existing floors were resurfaced and match seamlessly with the new kitchen floors. The adjoining hall and staircase were painted and refreshed.
The primary suite as it existed was less than functional. It was reconfigured, including moving the walk-in closet and building an all-new bathroom in space vacated by the old closet and bathroom.
The lower level went from a poorly finished empty room to a den with an office using off-set divider walls to define the spaces.
A large home office and second garage were added under the new porch. The second garage also houses two 1,000 cisterns for rainwater retention in an insulated room. The filter and other cisterns are housed in the original garage.
The remodel delivered everything the owners envisioned and solved the frustrating low water pressure problem. Engineering and building the addition to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds was complex, challenging and aesthetically beautiful.
Start your project today
