When Walls Get in the Way

Opening Up the Interior Gives Older, Smaller Houses New Life

The homes of yesteryear may possess charm that new construction can't match, but the rooms can be a bit small for 42-inch plasma screens and entertain-a-crowd cooking. Often, master baths are tiny, living rooms aren't so great, and galley kitchens seem built for galley slaves.

While some of these houses get plowed under, other moderate-size homes are finding new life as owners reconfigure spaces by knocking down the interior walls that clog things up. It's not cheap or easy, but the results can be spectacular and less expensive than starting from scratch.

Opening the floor plan is generally done in the public areas of the house, meaning the living room, dining room and kitchen. Although open floor plans are associated with modern interior-design schemes, the concept has been around for a lot longer, according to Hugh Newell Jacobsen, a D.C.-based architect and well-known practitioner of modern design.

"It originated in Japan around the 15th century and was brought west through the Bauhaus school in Germany," he said. Bauhaus, which flourished in the early 1900s, helped launch the modern age of architecture.

A century later, open plans may be more popular than ever. In a survey about design trends conducted by the National Association of Home Builders, 58 of 60 designers interviewed said floor plans that incorporate the dining area into the great room will become more prevalent in the average home.

This popularity makes sense. Milton Shinberg, an architect with Shinberg Levinas, teaches a class at Catholic University on how space is perceived. "One of the goals in an open floor plan is to share light by moving it from outside to inside. The other goal is to take spaces that are small and make them more comfortable," he said.

Lisa de Lima and Steve Geest wanted a more comfortable home, so in 1999 the couple made an offer on a one-story ranch house in Gaithersburg that belonged to Geest's grandparents -- without telling them. "We wanted to give them a fair price, we knew it was a good deal, and we knew the house," Geest said.

The young couple, who work for an organic food company, lived in the house for five years before exploring a major renovation. Through a referral, they met with Taylor Matthews, a designer with Landis Construction in the District. "They said they wanted to have a more sensible entryway and an updated kitchen that wouldn't be so closed off from the living room," Matthews said.

The front entrance was in the middle of the house and opened directly to the living room. "Because of how the space was designed, the furniture placement forced you to look at the front door," Matthews said. The original owners had enclosed a carport to expand the living space, but it was 18 inches lower than the rest of the house and unheated. The homeowners and the designer both saw the sunporch, which was being used for storage, as an opportunity to open things up and move the front door.

Matthews and the couple worked on plans for four months while trying to keep material selections eco-friendly and costs under control. "We drew a line in the sand about what it was sensible to spend," Geest said. "We didn't want to go overboard."

A fireplace and some skylights were sacrificed to stay on budget. When the couple look at what they originally spent on the house, what they invested and what it's worth now, Geest said, "I think we're about even, depending on where the market is going."

Reconfiguring meant building up the floor of the sunporch to the same level as the rest of the house and removing the wall. This was simplified because, as in most one-story ranches, the exterior walls bore all the weight of the house. De Lima and Geest lived in the house for five months of construction, camping out in the basement and bedroom.