When a tree falls on a house, everyone hears it. And while most people would view the crash of a 278-year-old oak tree as a catastrophe, Vienna homeowners Mark and Kelly Morgan turned the tragedy into an opportunity to improve their farmhouse. Built in 1936, the Morgans’ farmhouse is among the oldest in Vienna.
“Ever since we bought the house in 2002, people stop us on the street to talk about our house because it’s one of the few older houses on our street,” says Mark Morgan, regulatory counsel with the Petroleum Marketers Association of America and the New England Fuel Institute. “We talked about adding some living space, but we would never consider tearing it down.”
Restoring the house resulted in “re-charming” it, as Giles Griffiths, owner of Kingston Custom Homes, describes the addition of cedar rake overhangs, Hardie Plank clapboard, double-hung windows, a covered front porch by the kitchen, a covered rear stoop, a new deck, new railings and a pergola to the exterior of the house. Little details such as installing stone edging on the new asphalt driveway add up to a polished look yet stays in character with the farmhouse.
The Morgans spent about $228,000 on their renovation and expansion.
“We increased the size of our house by about one-third,” says Kelly, who delights in coming home to a new wood front porch with robin’s egg blue bead board ceiling.
Interior improvements include a two-story addition with a kitchen and pantry on the first floor and a new master bathroom and media room on the second floor. Kelly, a retired psychology nurse, made all the interior design decisions herself, fulfilling a lifelong passion for design.
Griffiths, who has decades of historic preservation experience, says the Morgans’ vision of their home was an advantage for the project.
“Many clients hire interior designers who have a different idea than the homeowners,” says Griffiths. “Luckily, Mark and Kelly knew what they wanted and didn’t have their ideas diluted by a designer.”
While the Morgans still miss the shade and beauty of their oak tree, they recognize that its demise contributed to a rebirth of their farmhouse.
“A carved acorn is a sign of good luck when you’re working with oak, so we custom-designed brackets to resemble acorns for the range hood and the center island,” says Griffiths, in a nod to the “luck” of the fallen oak.
A crack opens a door to a newly restored home.
The restoration project began with a crack that Mark noticed in their oak tree. The Morgans consulted a tree expert and prepared to pay $15,000 to have the tree removed.
“Our insurance company told us they would only pay if the tree fell on our house, which made no sense to us, so we went ahead and lined up a 75-ton crane to remove the tree,” says Mark. “The day before the crane arrived, the tree started making popping and groaning sounds that you could hear all over the neighborhood.”
Kelly moved everything she could to the front of the house away from the tree and the Morgans stayed with neighbors.
“Around 10 p.m. there was a massive noise and everyone thought a plane had crashed,” says Kelly. “The firefighters had to cut the tree away so we could get into the house and then the crane took the rest away the next day.”
The Morgans, who were able to stay in the damaged house, interviewed several builders before hiring Griffiths.
“The others said ‘no’ to almost everything we suggested, but Giles said ‘yes,’” says Mark. “For instance, I found a salvaged window for about $75 that I wanted to add to the dining room and he said ‘yes’ even though his crew wasn’t crazy about putting in something old.”
Mark located period push-button light switches and glass door knobs that fit the 1930s era house, while the original radiators were sandblasted and repainted, and matching cast iron radiators were installed in the new rooms of the house. The Morgans added crown moldings to every room where they were missing, including in the walk-in closet in the master bedroom.
While the major requirement was to repair the roof and build a two-story addition, Griffiths and the Morgans took the opportunity to give the house back its original character with new clapboard siding instead of vinyl and a new shingle roof. The main front porch was restored and includes a bead board ceiling painted robin’s egg blue to match the new secondary porch next to the kitchen.
“Sometime before the Morgans bought the house, the overhangs above the eaves on the front and sides of the house were removed,” says Griffiths. “We put those back on just for aesthetics and to give the house a more balanced and traditional look.”
A custom-made wood vent was installed on the exterior of the addition to match one on the opposite of the house.
A true farmhouse kitchen
The Morgans’ reconfigured layout replaced the original kitchen with a dining room that includes a mix of new and old windows. The former dining room became an extra sitting area, while the living room and office remain the same. The first-floor bathroom’s linoleum floor was replaced with black-and-white small format tile flooring, while the enameled clawfoot tub was restored.
An arched doorway that once led to a small enclosed side porch was widened to embrace the new kitchen. Kelly designed the white-painted wood cabinets, which have numerous custom-designed organizers for spices and kitchen accessories.
“We considered a soapstone island, but Giles pointed out that soapstone can be hard to care for,” says Kelly. “We ended up with a matte leathered black granite counter that stayed within our budget and looks perfect in the room.”
Other details the Morgans appreciate include the built-in bookcase for cookbooks tucked on the side of the island, the electrical outlets hidden under the cabinets and the wavy subway tiles that reflect light in the room.
The kitchen, like much of the rest of the house, includes a mix of new and antique items such as light fixtures and an old black rotary phone on the wall. Mark salvaged an old door that now connects the kitchen with the new porch. The efficient pantry includes open and closed shelving as well as another salvaged window.
A charmed life under the eaves
One challenge when expanding and restoring an older home is to marry the old sections of the house, including the plaster walls and original wood floors, with the new custom sections, says Griffiths. The bannisters and newel posts of the original staircase needed restoration and the addition required replicated bannisters and posts.
At the top of the stairs is an open bonus room with oak flooring, a wall-mounted TV and a row of windows above a built-in bookcase.
“It was my idea to build the bookcase on wheels with a hinge on one side to hide the air conditioning system,” says Mark. “We like having this open sitting room, but future owners could close off this space into another bedroom if they wanted to since it has a closet and windows.”
The other major renovation on the upper level is the master bathroom, which matches the aesthetics of the house with its clawfoot tub along with modern trends like its pale green stone vanity top, oversized glass-enclosed shower and partially tiled walls.
The Morgans worked with Griffiths to make additional improvements to the house, such as eliminating the large pull-down attic stairs from the master bedroom ceiling, replacing the carpet and vinyl flooring in the lower level with slate flooring, adding dual-zone air conditioning and a tankless water heater.
“We slept on a mattress in the cellar during the renovation and I had this fantasy that one day I would unzip the plastic covering the renovation and our two-story addition would just be there,” says Kelly.
Fulfilling that fantasy took about six months, but the Morgans and Griffiths continue to reminisce about the experience of bringing out the beauty of the former farmhouse.