Starting with Value… And a Home Pre-Primed for Renovation

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After three years of searching the mid-Atlantic seaboard for just the right property, our feature homeowners thought that their intention to relocate from their 10-acre homestead in Nashville to a new, waterfront residence would not be realized. However, persistence and a willingness to reassess their goals provided them with a unique opportunity beyond their imagination. 

As the homeowner explains, she and her husband had been looking for a place where they could take their true love of boating and finally get out on the water on a regular basis. 

“It was hard in Nashville because you had to drive an hour to get to your boat when you’re on a lake, and you’re kind of landlocked. So, we did a lot of research. We went here, went there, and looked at oceanfront properties and stayed for a week in different places along the East Coast,” she says. “We knew we wanted to be on the East Coast on the water, but we really wanted to have a dock or a pier and to be able to just walk out our back door and be on that pier and get on a boat and not have to get in a car to do that.”

Along with the water requirements, the couple wished for a dwelling that was turn-key with little to no upgrades to be made. They desired a minimum of five acres of land, plus other features that would help accommodate their beloved dogs and cats—and there are five of each!

Their last residence had been a total revamp of a historic home from the mid-1800s, so the thought of another large-scale renovation was a non-starter until—until it wasn’t. After numerous scouting trips to Annapolis and finding properties that didn’t hit the mark because the lot was too small or the elevation too high, their real estate agent had one last property that she felt had merit, even though it wasn’t listed on the Multiple Listing Service—and the interior was a mere shell.

There’s one word that turns a mere shell into a sold home…potential. 

Despite the structure presenting a failing, ’80s red brick façade, a crumpled front gable, and rough landscaping, the location along Duvall Creek was exquisite, and the lot was large and flat.

“We knew that this was it as soon as we turned into the driveway,” she says. “I immediately saw so much potential. I saw the fencing around it for the dogs, a really beautiful gate. I could see the house, how it could look. It was just beautiful. It just needed somebody.”

The 7,300-square-foot Georgian classic, which was up for private sale, had been in a state of perpetual renovation with no clear resolution in sight. 

Complicating the scenario, the home was also located in a critical area, which meant the new owners would need to find just the right team that could provide structural, logistical, and design expertise to address all that wasn’t working and then enhance what was working.  

The couple chose Purple Cherry Architects (PCA) of Annapolis after doing some thorough research. 

“We immediately knew Cathy [Purple Cherry] was the one; her personality fit ours.”

In addition to the team at PCA, the couple chose Gate One Builders to execute the plan and Campion/Hruby Landscape Architects to dress the surrounding acreage. 

Before and After Takeaways

Dramatic. Impactful. Stunning. 

Attaining ‘before’ and ‘after’ effects of this scale are what it’s all about in the home remodeling arena. Project driver Cathy Purple Cherry points out that while it looks as though this home required many structural changes to produce what we see in the ‘after’ photos, some homeowners might be surprised to learn that the primary ingredient when it came to the façade, was the three coats of white opaque stain used to transform the drab brick. 

“And only one other change, obviously, was simply the circle window in the big front gable because in the existing [home] proportionately, it was very tiny, and the front door changed to something that wasn’t arched and allowed that classic palladium window to sit above it,” Purple Cherry explains. “Then we also did bigger columns.” 

Classic touches include the solid mahogany front door framed by two striking, oversized coach-style lanterns. The landscape is architecturally re-imagined with intentional, house-framing native plantings in the front and borders of hardscaped stone and garden-like plantings in the back. The entire package creates a reminiscent, Lowcountry feel.

And it is the back of the home that was richly deserving of a transformation worthy of the home’s advantageous waterfront positioning. 

What had been a totally unremarkable and underwhelming waterfront reveal became a gracious and glorious walk out to the property’s private pier. Three levels of the home’s exterior had also been upgraded to maximize every sightline from indoors to out and provide a copious amount of outdoor living opportunities.

Purple Cherry says that the strategy was primarily centered on the application of the back porches. “And we did an addition on the right-hand side,” she says.  

“If you compare the [before and after photos], we needed more room in the downstairs back kitchen, so we pulled that out. We then obviously widened our shed dormer on the right, and on the left took off the fake gable and then dug in and created those decks on the second floor.”

They then added an entire second- and third-story porch level to the structure’s center core so that those new spaces could create those indoor and outdoor living opportunities. 

“At the very top of the peak, that is a home office,” she continues. “The right is the master suite. The left is a second master suite in concept. And then the lower level—the three, big quad pairs in the center under the roof are the great room, dining, and kitchen.”

Completing the floorplan, the family room is located on the far left and the home’s support spaces, including a back kitchen that feeds to the garage and the side entry, are located to the far right.

The back of the home was intentionally designed to be a less formal complement to the front of the house, says Purple Cherry, noting this was accomplished in several ways including changing the shape of the end gables and substituting square columns for round ones to create one cohesive informal but gracious visual takeaway. 

Filling the Mere Shell

The homeowner’s interior scheme had a Mediterranean vibe to it, which was totally out of keeping with its classic, Georgian exterior. Purple Cherry had a remedy for that.

“We had to move walls, move lines, move patterns, move everything. So, we basically went in and ripped out,” she says. 

Once through that mahogany front door, however, one is immediately impressed with how some aspects of the home’s floorplan, like the existing three-story entry would combine with newly envisioned sightlines to create a breathtaking introduction to the waterfront. 

The PCA interiors team then took certain cues from the homeowner who had some serious experience creating interiors from her former home renovation and was already full of ideas of what she wanted and where it should go.

Although their former home was more traditional and evoked aspects of the equestrian lifestyle, coming to Annapolis meant an opportunity to do something different; somewhat coastal with a modern edge to it.

“I just had this vision of this house having all of these elements, all the window seats that we built in—and in every room that otherwise would’ve been an empty space. But now they’re these cozy little nooks that you just want to sit in,” she says.

Also on the homeowner’s wish list was wide-plank floors, so with the help of PCA’s interiors team, they chose a sanded and stained white oak in a chestnut color. And although they were basically starting from scratch at this point, there were some conventions of the structure that required workarounds. The lower-profile ceilings in the home’s living areas, for instance, were not something they could change. 

They could, however, be augmented. The result is a series of rooms where you notice refined architectural treatments, not a lack of height. In the great room, there’s exquisite coffering on the “fifth wall” that complements the rest of the luxurious molding and trim work, including the accents on the crisp, white central fireplace with marble surround. This is another great example of a structure that already existed in the home but was enhanced ever so subtly by the homeowner requesting that two small stars be added to the mantle façade. A small detail with large impact. 

In the family room, painted beams were added, and in the primary suite, knotty wood beams play off the rustic charm of its white mantle fireplace with brick surround. 

The kitchen afforded another opportunity to get creative with the home’s existing footprint. The room’s square footage was a tad smaller by some of today’s standards but enlarging it would require going through the permitting process again, creating another non-starter. The remedy was the addition of an adjacent back kitchen/butler’s pantry that provided the homeowner with further creative license to personalize the space. A fashionable, coastal blue paint was used in this room for the cabinetry and molding, and upper glass fronts and heritage style hardware were chosen to further elevate the look of the custom cabinets. The homeowner opted for a Dutch exterior door in this room, handsomely balancing style with substance by honoring her love of horses and creating a safer space for meandering pets. Re-claimed Chicago-style brick was laid in a herringbone pattern on the floor. 

The main kitchen retained the wide-plank hardwoods and added an incredible view of the backyard and waterfront from a series of windows over the sink. 

“I am not of big fan of cold white kitchens,” says the homeowner. However, the smaller space denoted using white. So, the design would call on the owners’ love of wood accents and custom, vintage hardware to help bring in warm tones and textures to balance out their crisp, Danby marble counters and white cabinets. Luxe, patterned window treatments with coastal vibes by Thibaut were sourced through Sew Beautiful Interiors of Severna Park, completing the bright, sunny look.

A Place for Their Pals

At the end of the day, one of the most important things the house needed to do was provide a home for all of the empty nesters’ pets. Ardent animal rescuers, the couple required some workarounds for their furry brood of five dogs and five cats. 

Purple Cherry explains that these types of conversations were central for the mindful outfitting of a home with many pets. 

“What’s the fabric that’s going to be chosen? What’s the floor material? For example, the family room…that is the Number One dog area, meaning that was the place where they envisioned that they would hang out all the time watching television and all of the animals would be with them. So, believe it or not, the hardwood stopped outside of that space and a decorative hardwood tile went in specifically because when the dogs are there, they can have accidents.”

In fact, the homeowner says that one of her home’s favorite features is located on the lower level where they installed a huge, dog washing station, that she mused is bigger than all of their showers combined. 

“They all have to be washed and all of our dogs are shakers,” she laughs. So, they provided plenty of space for them to do just that behind large glass panels, and they chose Chicago brick for the flooring. The finishing touch: Thibaut wallpaper depicting whimsical pencil drawings of dogs in shades of gray, yellow, and black for the walls.

Other aspects on the homeowners’ favorite feature list include the home’s entry with its soaring ceiling and its big, open-water view, and the primary bedroom with its fireplace, overhead beams, and soft, cozy vibe. All part and parcel of a team effort, and a true appreciation of what they had found. 

“We are so proud of the house because we literally took a shell that was just torn to bits,” she recalls. “It was a mess, and we turned it into a stunning, beautiful, warm, stately, elegant home. And that was the goal. I wanted it to look like it had been there forever.”