This early 1950s ranch was connected to the garage by a breezeway added during a 1970s remodel. However, the kitchen and laundry area that had been moved to that segment was crowded and had an awkward floor plan.
A pool in the backyard prevented the homeowners from adding to the rear of the house. “We realized we could make the house ‘whole’ by incorporating the deck space,” Dickinson says. To gain the kitchen/dining area they desperately needed, the homeowners were willing to give up the undersized garage they never used.
Dickinson’s design extended the existing roofline to the garage, but he angled it high across the back so that he could add clerestory windows to bring much-needed natural light into the addition. He says that the design helped the family transition from what they had considered to be a starter home to a home they would enjoy living in for several decades.
Excerpted from Duo Dickinson’s book Staying Put, published by The Taunton Press, 2011.
