Columbus, Ohio
Heritage Home Addition
A home addition in Clintonville, Columbus, that levels an older house's sloped floors, then adds a kitchen, primary suite and family basement at the rear.
The project
This older Clintonville house needed much more room, and its owners wanted the street to see the house it always had. The design addresses the original sloped floors and places an addition entirely behind the house, with a new porch the only change out front.
Leveling sloped floors before adding on
The original house is an older Clintonville home, and its floors slope noticeably. The structural engineering work addressed how to correct and level those floors so the new rooms can tie into the existing house. The renovation plan accounts for that work before adding the rooms behind it.
The street keeps the house it knows.
The new rooms sit behind it.
A rear addition that keeps the street view
Protecting the curb appeal was one of the owners' priorities, and the design holds to it. The addition sits entirely behind the original house. The driveway already runs past the house to the back, so the new rooms land where the household already arrives.
The one change at the street is a new front porch, detailed to give the front a little more architectural interest. The overall scale fits the street, where many houses started small and have since taken on large additions.
Kitchen, mudroom and pantry below, suite above
On the main level, the addition extends the kitchen and adds a mudroom and a pantry, the working rooms an older house rarely has. Upstairs it adds two bedrooms, one of them a primary suite, along with additional bathrooms. The plan also includes a study and an office.
The owners wanted the addition to be its own new thing rather than a continuation of the original roof and details. The result is a modern farmhouse addition with its own roofline, attached to a house that looks, from the front, as it always has.
Two basements with two jobs
The addition includes a full basement, which changes how the lower level works. The original basement is cleaned up and otherwise left as it is, kept for mechanical equipment, plumbing and storage. The old basement stair is removed, and a new stair leads down to the new finished basement.
That new space is a second family room: a playroom with space for a TV, a couch and games. The service basement and the living basement each do one job well.
A relocated garage with a flex room above
The old garage is demolished and rebuilt in a new position, which frees the backyard for outdoor living and a pool area. The new garage includes a pool equipment room, storage, and a bathroom on the ground floor for use when the owners entertain outside.
Above it is a flex room planned initially as a home gym. The design includes rough plumbing for a future apartment and a bathroom, making provision for a later conversion.
Arcfluence is responsible for the architecture; a separate interior designer is developing the interiors.