Architects Annie-Laurie Grabiel and Arthur Furman, founders of the award-winning firm, Side Angle Side, purchased their charming 1939 slab-on-grade bungalow in Austin, Texas, for multiple reasons: the wide lot, live oak tree in the front yard and natural light that poured through the home. It also happens to be three houses down from where Furman grew up in the Travis Heights neighborhood. After living in the house for many years while remodeling and building homes for their clients, Grabiel and Furman finally decided to take on their own home renovation.
What started as a dishwasher addition to the kitchen snowballed into a full-blown renovation. “The original home did not have a dishwasher and, so naturally, we had been planning a kitchen remodel from the moment we moved in,” Grabiel says. “Thing is, being two architects, we continued to design and redesign various schemes and then put them aside for a spell and then we would resume with new ideas; that went on for seven years!”
The couple decided to start first with the kitchen and primary bath renovation. As they began dismantling the kitchen cabinets, removing the doors and drawer faces and stacking them on the dining table, they knew this would surely force them to make a plan and actually move forward with the home remodel of their dreams.
“We ended up living without functioning cabinets for half a year while we finished the plans and permits, but it created the sense of urgency that we apparently needed,” Furman notes.
Although the scope was only the kitchen and primary bath, once the family moved out and construction began, Grabiel awoke early one morning with an idea and started sketching design plans. The sketch bumped out the front of the house by 7 feet, adding a new foyer, new kids’ rooms, family room and new guest bath (an additional 200 square feet of living space). After staring at the plan for a minute, it was obvious they had to do it. The original footprint, at 1,900 square feet, had an H-shaped floor plan with courtyards in the front and back. The new design adheres mostly within the existing envelope—slab, exterior walls, roof structure—except for the 7-foot addition across the entire front of the house.
“This small addition allowed us to reconfigure the interior plan. We were able to add an entire bedroom and bathroom. However, we relocated the front door and went with a custom steel pivot door and sidelight,” Furman states.
The primary suite was entirely remodeled. Although the original footprint was quite spacious, the bathroom and closet were framed into a really small space. The architects added an interior wall that serves double duty: Constructed in conventional wood and drywall and finished with integral-color plaster, the decorative wall is a space-defining element—a unique headboard and closet wall.
Within the house everything is new: walls, wood floors (though reclaimed), plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, kitchen, baths and appliances. One of the important aspects of the renovation—something the architects like to employ with most client renovations—was the salvage and reuse of as much as possible in keeping with the home’s integrity. Many of the original steel casement windows were kept and relocated.
Wanting to avoid decision-fatigue, they tried to stick to as few materials as possible. The same fleur-de-lis tile can be found in the entryway, kitchen, bathrooms and exterior courtyards while reclaimed longleaf pine boards add a layer of warmth to the living areas and bedrooms.
On the exterior, the home’s original cedar shake was updated with paint.
Once the couple moved back into the house, they recognized some important aspects were still missing from the design: An outdoor living area and swimming pool were a necessity for their young family and outdoor lifestyle.
They added an extension onto the existing gable roof off the end of the kitchen creating a large, shaded patio. Adding a pool on this lot was challenging because the rear half of the site sloped up more than 10 feet toward the back. To add the pool and a hot tub, they had to excavate and incorporate terraces and retaining walls.
“We removed 30 dump trunks full of soil to terrace the hill and create the pool deck and lawn,” Furman recalls. “Also, there is a city stormwater easement that runs diagonally through the middle of the lot, behind the house, so we had to tackle that in the landscape plan.”
The swimming pool was an extensive project, but the results are stunning. Furman chose a type of resin that’s popular in Mexico for the pool material. One of its perks is that it can be used on every surface so there is no fussing over coping or waterline tile.
“Perhaps the biggest challenge was just the fact that we are both architects and this is our own personal home. When it’s for us, we often seem to overthink things and get paralyzed in indecision. Ironically, in our hurry to complete the project we forgot to plan in a dishwasher. Just kidding!” Grabiel laughs.
PHOTOS: Casey Dunn unless otherwise noted
Retrofit Team
Architect: Side Angle Side
- Annie-Laurie Grabiel
- Arthur Furman
Landscape: Campbell Natural Landscape Design
Builder: Waller Building Co.
Engineer: Fort Structures
Materials
Floors: Reclaimed Long-leaf Pine and Saltillo Tile from Saltillo Tile & Stone Co.
Kitchen Countertop: Fresh Concrete from Caesarstone
Primary Bath Vanity and Countertop: Sapele Custom Wood Millwork
Primary Bath Plaster Walls and Ceiling: American Clay
Exterior Siding: Original Cedar Shakes
Siding Paint: Peppercorn from Sherwin Williams
Brick Patios: Mexican Brick from Rustico Tile
Pool Deck: Cumaru from US Lumber Brokers
Pool Resin: Chukúm