Lakewood Tudor Project: Part I

I went ahead and made this a multiple blog post project. There is a LOT to cover. I’ll start at the beginning.

Some fabulous repeat clients called us last January (2020) to talk about potentially gutting and restoring a home they found that was built in 1930. Over the last 90 years, the home has been added-to and remodeled. However, the back addition looked nothing like the rest of the original home and was using up the entire potential-backyard space. This home is a perfect mix of Tudor stucco and angles with Monterey aesthetics.

Here is an exterior views so you can really get a feel for the home:

Below is a picture of the addition on the back of the house. The all-stucco section stands out significantly against that beautiful brick from 1930.

The first order of business was to get the permitting and architecture plans started. We had a start date scheduled for March of 2020. Cue maniacal laugh. With the issuance of shelter-in-place and essential business only, all of our new and upcoming jobs were put on hold. Fast-forward to June of 2020 and we finally got ourself a demo day.

We had to take out a significant portion of the trees that were growing for two reasons: 1. They were hiding an entire beehive that led into the stucco walls of the addition and 2. There was no way to salvage them as we demolished the back half of the house.

Now, please bare with me as we literally destroy this house. You’ll probably need to take a deep breath after these next few images. Remember, it always looks worse before it looks better. (As an aside, it was a really fun day to bring our kids and our client’s kids to the job site - so they could watch the excavator in action!)

So now that the back half has been removed, it was time to get back to building.

In the image above, we’ve got a new framed out living area, a new attic space upstairs, and a porch perimeter laid. But this is where we’ll end today because this page can’t take any more pictures. SO you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the next stages!