Ty Pennington: Why I Love This House (continued)
Modern design is where it's at for me, and this place is one awesome example
Philippe Starck chairs pull up to another one of Elliott's creations: a dining table made of gray laminate and pieces of aircraft aluminum.That was in 1986. Over the years, Elliott and Janet tweaked the house— widened the back deck, replaced the shiplap and turned the neglected yard into an English-style garden. Eventually, they began to feel restless and started house-hunting again, but couldn't find anything nearby that came close to matching their spacious lot and expansive view. So they called in architects Ralph Cunningham and Lee Quill, of Cunningham & Quill Architects in Washington, D.C., whose work they admired, and asked for help turning their old house into something new. "Because of the way the house is sited on the lot, an addition could go 40 or 50 feet back," says Janet, a self-employed graphic designer. An L-shaped addition was the way to go.
Although the inside remained virtually unchanged except for the rear addition, the front facade got a sweeping makeover. In place of a crumbling brick retaining wall, a sinuous poured-concrete wall—dramatically up-lit at night with low-voltage canisters set into the paving—leads to the house's front entry. The narrow driveway had always been a logistical nightmare for a two-car family; a double driveway and handsome jutting canopy now make it easy to keep both cars under cover.
The real magic, however, is only visible from the back: a new master suite, perched like a tree house atop the 900-square-foot addition, which includes a workshop on the lower level.
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