The Thayer Street addition is a first floor master suite addition with a walk-in closet, master bath, and bedroom. With growing teenage children, the historic farmhouse was starting to feel small, especially with three bedrooms and one bathroom on the second floor for everyone to share. In addition, we designed for aging in place, loud neighbors to the north and a beautiful backyard to the east.

 

The design solution attaches the addition off of the existing laundry room and replacing an existing window with the door to the bedroom.  Wide circulation pathways throughout contribute to a sense of spaciousness. Canting the addition relative to the existing house while extending the front edge of the deck perpindicularly allows the deck to expand creating a covered seating area outside of the bedroom sliders. A long step, extending the length of the deck and set at around 16” makes for confortable seating framing the edge of the backyard. The insulation is dense pack cellulose and the siding is eastern white pine all contributing to low embodied carbon. A nice surprise was the exposed wood board exterior sheathing that was exposed with the removal of clapboards - this was kept adding character and texture to the space.  

Project Location
Amherst, MA

2021-2024
 

Project Team
Naomi Darling - Principal 
Leonard Morse Fortier - Concept Structural Engineer
Damien McNally - Builder
 

Photography
Sean Kernan