Lisa and Morris made the house feel much larger than its 1,700 square feet by opening up the ceilings and introducing many large windows and doors.

When friends first see Lisa Mahar and Morris Adjimi's cozy country home in upstate New York, they're invariably surprised. The Manhattan architects are well known for the edgy projects they have designed for such clients and Nike, Levi Strauss and Swatch. Their New York City town house is a study in Modernism.

Yet Lisa and Morris agreed that what their cottage on Lake Oscawana needed was a simple, traditional remodeling. "Both of us had a really clear vision about what to do with the home," Lisa says. "We wanted it to fit into the area, not to stand out. The challenge was striking a balance between past and present. That guided every decision in the process."

Built in the 1940s and vacant for many years, the cottage was in bad shape when Lisa and Morris bought it three years ago. The front porch sagged under the weight of the upstairs bedrooms. The living room floor had buckled from settling and water damage. A brick-clad addition and a new skin of vinyl siding in the 1960s spoiled the classic Cape Cod character.
Construction wouldn't be a picnic, either. The rocky ground would need to be jack hammered in order to build the foundation for an addition, and a steep slope behind the house would make getting equipment to the site difficult. But potential for the house, which sits about 15 feet from the water, far outweighed any drawbacks.

The architects restored the home's balance with a master suite addition. The earliest addition on the opposite end of the house was gutted and rebuilt into a light-filled kitchen. New floor-to-ceiling doors and stone patios take advantage of the lake view and promote easy indoor-outdoor living.

Other walls came down and hallways were eliminated. Drywall and simple beaded board replaced dark paneling. The kitchen ceiling was vaulted to add volume and spaciousness. Sight lines from the living room to the new kitchen and master bedroom help expand the space.

"The best way to limit a budget is to limit the overall square footage." Morris explains. "Our house has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, an eat-in-kitchen, a living room, and a utility room in only 1,700 square feet."

Like most first-time home remodelers, Lisa and Morris had to make tough choices before and during building. Should they spend from $20,000 to $35,000 to perfectly level the floors and plumb the walls? (No, they could live with the slight slopes and angles.) Should they insist on true divided lights? (No, they got the look and energy efficiency they wanted with simulated divided lights.) In matter important to daily living, however flooring, countertops and fixtures-the architects opted for style and luxury.

As the project wound down, Lisa and Morris realized another thing-their emotional attachment to the cottage had grown during the eight-month project. "We don't think of it as our weekend house anymore," Lisa says. "It's more like our real home."

The Plan

"The plan only took a couple of days," says Lisa Mahar. "It's easier to work with an existing building as opposed to creating something from scratch. The house tells you what to do."

In this case, what the house was telling then to do was restore the common-sense symmetry of the typical Cape Cod.

The new master suite addition took care of that by counterbalancing the earlier addition. Now, new clapboard siding, painted a cheery yellow, unifies the original house and additions.

To make the house more suitable for modern living and entertaining, Lisa and her husband, Morris Adjmi, mobbed the kitchen to the older addition, where there's room enough for a dining table that seats eight.

A new entry and furnace-laundry room occupy the old kitchen space.

The living area gained more square footage and daylight when the architects removed the closed-in sun porch and replaced it with a smaller open porch.

The couple retained the staircase and fireplace in the living room, a move that saved money.

Upstairs, they bumped out the dormer a few feet to squeeze in a shower in the bathroom for the three guest bedrooms.

The Payoff

December 1998: In December we began to question our initial decision not to build a master bedroom suite. It wasn't until a month after we began construction that we decided to change our plans to accommodate an enlarged master bedroom suite. Additionally, because the house was so close to the water and our neighbor to the south, we had to file for a variance from the zoning board, which was approved. The excavation for the addition was difficult. The ground where we built had to go down 8 feet to match the height of the existing living room floor. The ground was solid rock, and it took almost two weeks just to break it up, we used the rocks to build retaining walls behind the kitchen and master bedroom, this part of the project seemed to ho on forever. By the end of the month, we were eager to see things like patios and cherry wood floors (From Goodwin Heart Pine Co.) instead of cement and mud.

The first-floor bath, near the master bedroom but not in it, functions as Lisa's bathroom and as an overflow guest bath when necessary. The architects don't like to plan bathrooms with shower-tub combinations. "The shower is not an ideal shape, and the tub has to have a curtain, "Lisa says. "This room feels very luxurious because the bathtub is a nice architectural form in the room." The European-style handheld shower fixture is a stylish compromise.

Tips From the Pros

-Consider upgrading to premium material in areas that you will come in daily contact with, such as floors and countertops. In the kitchen, Lisa and Morris specified inexpensive cabinets since they would be painted white. That allowed them to splurge on marble countertops. Cherry wood flooring may seem like a luxury, but it cost only a dollar more per square foot than oak and makes a much bigger style statement.
· Use caution in letting builders specify lighting and plumbing fixtures. They might steer you toward items because they're easy to get, easy to work with, or have nice markups. Lisa and Morris negotiated base installation prices with their builder, so it cost the same to put in a $300 faucet as a $100 faucet.
· Use paint to bring color to your interiors. It's inexpensive and readily changed if you grow weary of the color. Vibrant yellows, blues, and greens-the colors of the lake and garden-take turns playing starring and supporting roles in the remodeled cottage's rooms.
· Strive for excellence, not perfection. When remodeling an old house, Perfection, such as leveling the floor in the living room, would have come at too high a price.

Sources

Interior details:

Cherry Flooring, American Cherry, 3 ¼-inch boards, $6.15/square foot-Goodwin Heart Pine Co., 800.336.3118; www.heartpine.com