A silk purse from a sow’s ear
The sow’s ear in this case was a very dated fifties ranch house. It had an awkwardly high ‘eyebrow’ above the garage door and the floor level was so high above grade at the back that the owner’s felt cut off from their yard. The inside was nice and efficient, however, and the owner’s only wanted a few small additions — a guest suite, a master bath and a mud room. We wrapped the back of the house with a large deck to encourage indoor-outdoor living, added the guest suite above the garage and made sweeping changes to the building envelope to meet the owners’ request that the house be energy efficient almost to Passive House standards. This solar powered ‘silk purse’ was ably remodeled by the Conrado Company.
