The centerpiece of our restoration was a brand new staircase connecting the second and third floor. Our goal was to replicate the appearance of the original stone-and-iron formal stair that connected the first floor foyer to the second floor.

The original stair treads and riser were made of painted stone. Because of budget constraints we built our new stairs’ treads and risers from oak, then distressed and faux-painted them to match the existing lower stair. An iron railing was custom made to duplicate the existing rail (which did not meet code). We added matching ornamental iron embellishments to both new and existing railing to meet code.

We replaced the all-steel windows with energy-efficient black clad windows, matching the original look as closely as possible.

The original oversized dining room was bisected to create two rooms. This solution provided the homeowners with a new and very useful family room off the kitchen. The remaining space was faithfully restored as an elegant dining room of still-generous size with a view of the front garden, terrace, and fountain.

Finally, we waterproofed the foundation and installed flood control systems. We also waterproofed the gutter details, solving an existing issue with the original construction that resulted in water flow and ice damming behind the brick façade — a problem that had gone mostly undetected and imperiled the walls’ integrity.

Greener Building

The new energy-efficient windows contained insulated glass with low-E and argon.