Samantha and Benjamin Hunter bought a two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage in Falls Church in 2012, figuring they’d eventually renovate. But soon their plans changed, and with one child and another on the way, the couple, both in their 30s, found themselves outgrowing the cottage faster than expected. They also realized they could use some extra hands with the kids.
Around the same time, Samantha’s parents, Joan M. Smith and Frederick Winter, were just starting to think about downsizing out of their 1950s red-brick rambler near Yorktown High School in Arlington. They’d lived in the 1,446-square-foot house since the 1990s after relocating from New York City (Samantha graduated from Yorktown), but now they were empty nesters, both in their 70s, and mostly retired.
Oddly enough, the rambler’s basement was on everyone’s minds. Although they weren’t actively searching for a smaller home, Smith and Winter knew the time would come when they’d need to begin sifting through its memory-filled boxes—a task they did not want to leave to their daughter.
Samantha didn’t like the idea of her aging parents having to negotiate the basement steps to do their laundry. “I’m an only child,” she says, “so I knew as my parents got older, we would be the ones helping out with their property.”
Some discussions later, a win-win multigenerational household plan was formed. Together, the two couples decided they would renovate the rambler to include two residences under one roof: a new main house for the young family, and an attached but entirely independent apartment where Samantha’s parents could age in place.
That’s where Wilma Bowers, co-owner of McLean-based Bowers Design Build, came in. There are always challenges aplenty with a one-couple renovation, let alone a project with double the wants and needs, says the veteran remodeler. But this was also a chance to do something different—and prototypically significant—in Arlington.
Intent on reusing the original brick, per the owners’ request, Bowers took the house down to the studs and then built up, adding second-story bedrooms for the Hunters and their (now three) little boys, ages 8, 5 and 11 months. Every inch was meticulously considered for both dwellings. On decisions, Smith says, the goal was consensus—and for the most part, this agreeable family, well, agreed, starting with the home’s Italianate architecture.
For Samantha, the mansard roof was a design must. “I’d been attracted to that style since high school,” she says, recalling a Falls Church home she’d often admired while driving to and from an old boyfriend’s house.
Practical considerations also factored into the design. The family had hoped to share resources, but the county required separate heating and cooling units and separate water heaters for both dwellings, which Bowers creatively placed outside the living spaces. The home’s third-story windows actually front attic storage and an upstairs HVAC system.
Complicating matters was an Arlington County zoning rule that the ground-level apartment (aka “accessory dwelling unit”) could not exceed 750 square feet. Though the owners appealed to gain more space, the finished apartment ended up at precisely 749.5 square feet. Bowers chose to err on the safe side.
A generous front porch with rocking chairs now presents a welcome facade, with a double front door that’s nostalgically similar to the one from Smith and Winter’s brownstone in New York. Inside that red door, a small vestibule branches off with separate entries into each of the two homes. (Per code, the official exterior door to the parents’ apartment is around back, but this clever design maneuver provides a more elegant point of entry from the front.)
“We wanted it to feel like two homes coming together,” says Lori Shaffer, Bowers’ senior project designer. That meant considering the functions of each residence, the separate and shared living spaces, and the personalities of all four owners—apart, but connected.
The floor plan includes a number of creative design solutions that serve the structure’s dual purpose. For instance, a shared full bath caters to guests of either party, and is situated in a hallway that can be closed off for privacy.
Though the extended family often enjoys meals together, the apartment has its own spacious kitchen, affording its elder occupants “freedom,” Winter says. He and his wife like to take their morning coffee on their sunny deck, which looks out at the woods.
The apartment also has an en-suite master bathroom with a low-threshold shower and granite shower bench (fashioned from the rambler’s original kitchen countertop) and slip-resistant vinyl floor tiles. The space is designed to accommodate people with physical disabilities, if needed—a safeguard that will allow Smith and Winter to remain there as they grow older.
And then there’s the library/office/guest room that Bowers designed to accommodate bookcases from the couple’s old high-ceilinged brownstone. (Standing more than 8½ feet high, the units were too tall for the rambler and had been stored in pieces in the basement for years until the renovation afforded the chance to resurrect them.) Now, thanks to 9-foot ceilings, academic titles mingle with Legos on those shelves, Winter says.
At 2,712 square feet, the Hunters’ side of the house is both elegant and designed with kid-friendly conveniences. In the boys’ bathroom, sinks are positioned on opposite walls, ensuring “no fighting,” Samantha says. The master bedroom’s walk-in closet hides a chute (outfitted with a childproof lock) that sends dirty clothes straight to the laundry room in the basement.
In the main living area, Samantha’s grandmother’s antique chairs happily share space with toys and a divan. Per the family’s request to salvage as much of the old house as possible, Bowers painstakingly disassembled, then reassembled the room’s original fireplace mantel to fit between new windows. (She also repurposed the old kitchen cabinets as laundry room storage.)
A large dining room table extends, and can be turned perpendicular, for parties and holidays, and a pocket door to the kitchen can be closed to conceal chaos. Large windows and French doors channel in natural light year-round, and the kitchen opens onto a shared patio—a well-traveled shortcut between the two residences.
The renovation was completed in April 2017, but there’s more room to expand, if needed, in the basement and over the garage. There are no specific plans in the works, but all four adults say they have designs on Phase 2.
Jennifer Shapira writes about home and design in Northern Virginia.
The Owners:
Samantha Hunter, former vice president of development and now a part-time consultant for the Alliance for Aging Research in Washington, D.C.; previously worked for the National Council on Aging
Benjamin Hunter, vice president of sales for the Utah-based consulting firm Caveon Test Security
Joan M. Smith, a former nurse-psychotherapist for Arlington County Behavioral Healthcare and Georgetown University; now volunteers with Arlington Neighborhood Village
Frederick Winter, a classical archaeologist and consultant/lecturer with Smithsonian Associates