Category: Whole-house remodeling, more than $100,000
Location: Royal Oak, Md.
Contractor: George Combs, George W. Combs Construction, Easton, Md.
Designers: Charles Goebel, Charles P. Goebel Architect, Easton, and George Combs
Architect Charles Goebel and remodeler George Combs designed this project with a radical transformation in mind. The original home, a low-slung brick ranch, seemed at odds with its site — better fitted for a suburban street than the wooded banks of a tide-water creek. Now, reimagined from the foundation up, it's hard to discern even a trace of the original.
Goebel and Combs wanted to create a more site-appropriate house by recalling early 20th century schools of thought. Asian-influenced gables and Craftsman-style dormers contribute to this period aesthetic, as do lap cedar shingles, installed ground floor to rooftop. The shingles, Combs says, also serve to connect the house to the wooded shore behind it.
Skillfully crafted details outside and in distinguish the project as more than just a halfhearted period re-creation. Bands of sawtoothed shingles bowed into a bell curve cap the windows on the faces of the gables; stained glass side lights at the entrance filter light into a wood paneled foyer floored with reclaimed heart pine. Beadboard and period fixtures throughout the interior lend yet another layer of detailed finish.
