Still, there are those who choose to renovate, even if it means jumping through a few extra hoops.
When Arlington remodeler Sauri and his wife, Deborah, renovated their 1930s bungalow in Lyon Park, they were careful to maintain a footprint that allowed them to grandfather the property’s existing setbacks. (The remodel retained the original foundation and the walls on the first floor.) Doing so, Sauri says, was central to a design that respects the scale of the neighborhood. “There was also a lot of trash I didn’t put in the dumpster because I didn’t knock this house down,” he says.
The renovation about doubled the home’s size to 3,800 square feet, but the new design incorporates a few moves that make it look less imposing. Sauri rotated the gables sideways (so the home’s tallest point isn’t evident from the front) and added a wide front porch that brings the eye down to street level. The entire permitting and building process took 14 months.
Sometimes remodeling ends up being the more expedient option. In late 2015, Donna Welsh, a government lawyer, and her husband, Joe Dewald, bought a rundown rambler in East Falls Church and moved in, with plans to expand it—eventually. They assumed Welsh’s mother would one day live with them, and there was a chance their grown son might need to move back home, too. The house was 1,400 square feet, plus a basement with old pine paneling and a toilet sitting out in the open, but they figured they had time.
Then Welsh’s mother broke several bones, and their need for more space became urgent, so they hired Paradigm Building Group to remodel. Seven months later, the house had a refinished basement (complete with a bedroom and bathroom), a first-floor bedroom suite with a handicap-accessible shower, and a second-floor master suite. Plus a pottery studio and a gym.
Now 4,200 square feet, the house is three times its former size. Welsh says it’s not the first to bulk up in their neighborhood, where the sound of construction activity—both remodels and new builds—has become background noise.