Private Residence, Clifton, Va.
As the president of United Masonry Inc., David S. Wright certainly knew where to turn when a project to put an addition on the family home called for stonework. Still, he admits that installing his own kitchen countertops and bathroom vanities made him a little nervous.
Perhaps because of his background in building, he knew he couldn’t take on the project alone. He brought in an experienced architect to fine-tune his thoughts, letting the architect’s construction company serve as the general contractor for the job.
However, it’s Wright’s vision of stone that helped pull various elements of the project into a complete whole, and made what could have been just another add-on into an attractive and functional prize-winner.
AN ADDITION IN MIND
Wright and his wife, Felicia, are probably lucky they know the history of the house; they’ve lived in it since it was constructed in the early 1990s. However, it wasn’t built for them.
Wright explains that at that time, he worked for a builder of custom homes in Washington’s western suburbs. When the economy slowed in the early ‘90s, the company bought a five-acre lot and built what he called a “carriage house” on the property to keep everyone busy – with the intent of building a larger home on the same location when the economy improved.
“During the process I was offered the opportunity to purchase the property,” Wright explains, “We feel fortunate that we were able to sell our old house nearby and purchase this one.”
At 24’ X 36’ on two stories, the house was ideal for the young couple. As with many people, though, over time the Wrights added two daughters to their family, and the house became too small.
Wright says that, fairly early on, they realized they would have to add on at some point because the original idea of building a larger new house didn’t appeal to them. About four years after moving in – after he left the custom home builder to work in commercial masonry – the Wrights attended a building show in the area with their addition in mind.
“It was a show with a lot of architects and builders, and we met Mark Kohler there,” Wright explains. “We liked that he had both the design studio and the building company. We knew we’d need both services and we wanted to have the continuity of having the architect’s involvement in the construction.
“Most importantly, we liked his design work,” he adds. “We found it wasn’t overly formal, and that’s exactly what we’re looking for.”
Kohler, president of Burke, Va.-based Kohler Associates Architects and Kohler Homes, recalls meeting the Wrights and talking to them about their project. He says it also didn’t hurt that he had done a large project for David Wright’s partner in the masonry firm.
“They got to know the company, and then when they were ready to move forward, they gave us a call,” says Kohler.
However, the Wrights had been in the house about a dozen years before they felt they were ready to go ahead, and they had some very definite ideas for what they wanted from the project before it got started.
LOOKING OLD
Both men agree that one of the biggest challenges was the site itself. Although the house sits on a hill, drainage was an issue.
“All of the woods above the house drain right next to the house, and there’s a big swale there,” says Kohler. “The only direction you could go to expand the house was over the swale, so we came up with what we call a bridge house.
“Going in the opposite direction would have required us to cut down a lot of trees and re-grade everything, and we wanted this addition to look like we had dropped it in by helicopter.”
Wright drew the basic design (which called for a living room, home office and master bedroom/bath) on an architectural drafting program, had a draftsman create a finished set of documents, and then took it to Kohler.
“They modified the floor plan extensively to fit the topography, as well as adding most of the architectural features that make it unique, particularly the new entrance/foyer,” says Wright. “I credit him with taking my very basic design and making it into something that fits perfectly with the existing home and the unusual building site.”
Perhaps foremost among those architectural features is the use of locally-quarried Carderock® from Tri-State Stone® & Building Supply Inc. in Bethesda, Md.– not just for the exterior cladding, but taking what had been an exterior wall and making it a key feature of the new living room.
Wright recalls being with the original builder when he chose Carderock for the exterior of the carriage house. They had gone out to one of Washington’s more-rural suburbs to look at some old barns.
“They had a rough-struck joint and were built from rubble stone collected on site,” he says. “This was not modern, crisp, neat stonework, but rather practical farm-type stonework, and that’s what we tried to emulate with the original house. We wanted it to look old.”
Bringing the outside wall in, though, wasn’t easy. Two windows were taken out, and Wright says the in-fills initially stood out because the mortar didn’t match.
“The mason who built our masonry heater cut out all the joints and re-pointed the whole interior so it would look the same,” he explains. “Then, we washed it with an acid wash to expose the aggregate in the mortar and provide an aged look. He did a super job and it really turned out great.”
Kohler agrees that the work on the stone wall makes it hard to tell the old from the new. To give it emphasis, he tied it together with a rough-sawn white oak post-and-beam entrance; the timbers were salvaged from an old barn in Pennsylvania and re-cut to fit the new structure.
For Kohler, the greatest design challenge was coming up with a foyer that would give the home a new entrance and tie the old and new portions together.
“We came up with this stone tower, with a cathedral ceiling in the roof,” he says. “When you walk in, we opened up one of the existing windows and now you can see into the kitchen. Or, you can go the other way and follow the soapstone tile floor into the living room, which is the bridge.”
TYING IT TOGETHER
Although it was not part of the addition as such, the Wrights also opted to remodel their kitchen, and the use of soapstone for its countertops and flooring further ties the new and existing parts of the home together.
“I looked up a designer that we’d worked with when I was working in the custom home business,” says Wright. “I did the remodel myself. I made my own countertops from soapstone I got from M. Teixeira Soapstone in Hackensack, N.J. Manuel shipped me some slabs and I fabricated them.”
Wright confesses to having an advantage over the average homeowner in that he has access to an array of diamond cutting tools as part of the field side of his business.
“I don’t know if I’d do it on my own again,” he says, although he didn’t have any major problems with the fabrication and installation.
For the floors, the Wrights chose matching Mariana Soapstone™, in 16” X 16” tiles, 1/2” thick from Stonetrade of East Greenwich, R.I.
“The countertop stone drove the rest of the interior stone, which goes through the kitchen and then into the addition,” he explains. “It really ties the old part of the house with the addition.”
The soapstone flooring also serves another important purpose. The bridge area of the house has a concrete slab, and the Wrights installed radiant hot-water heating pipes throughout the concrete of the addition.
“With the soapstone tile over it, when it gets warm it’s quite nice,” says Wright. “It has the thermal mass to hold the heat.”
The soapstone’s appearance and its ability to hold heat also helped drive the remaining uses of stone in the project. For the walk-in shower in the master bath and for the vanity tops, the couple chose Carrara Classico marble.
Although soapstone and white marble might seem to be a strange palette, Wright says the attraction of both stones is their plainness.
“I’m hoping it’s something I won’t tire of,” he says. “When I was working in the home-building business, people would often choose something in red or green stone; while it was beautiful, I’d think they’d get tired of it over time. The marble is really beautiful, and not that expensive. We love it.”
Tile for the shower was supplied by Stone Tile Depot in Fairfax, Va., and the slabs – which are used in the vanities and in a bench seat and shelf in the shower – were fabricated and supplied by Laser Marble of Newington, Va.
Despite having the marble fabricated, Wright again did the installation himself.
“I drove out and picked them up in my pickup, did the delivery and the installation, all to save money,” he says. “They did a super job on the fabrication.”
The home’s final stone touch is a piece of Norwegian Blue Pearl – also supplied by Laser Marble – that serves as the hearth for the living room’s masonry heater. As with the use of soapstone, Wright says the addition of a masonry heater was about providing a low-cost alternative to traditional heating methods.
Although he investigated using a soapstone masonry heater fabricated by the Finnish supplier Tulikivi, he opted to buy a Temp-Cast Enviroheat masonry heater, a Canadian product with precast components. He finished the unit in white stucco over brick.
“As with the stone, it’s not a real busy look,” Wright says. “We were trying to emulate an eastern European stove that we had seen a picture that had a very clean white appearance.
“The great thing about it is that when I build a fire it will burn for two hours, but the surrounding masonry absorbs the heat and releases it gently for about 14 hours. With five wooded acres, I have a plentiful source of firewood.”
Kohler estimates it took about 18 months from when design work started on the project until it was completed, “Because Dave did some things himself, we were done but he wasn’t necessarily done,” he adds.
Since being completed the home addition has won several awards, including being cited by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. (“Remade and Renewed,” Stone Business October 2007).
As for working with someone as knowledgeable and as capable of doing part of his own work as David Wright, Kohler agrees with his client that the relationship was a positive one.
“He’s very design-oriented and both he and his wife really like design,” says Kohler. “It really raised the bar, but he understood where we were coming from when we made design suggestions. We worked very well together, and their input made the job better than if they hadn’t been involved.”
This article first appreared in the December 2007 print edition of Stone Business. ©2007 Western Business Media Inc.