2020: Year In Review

While 2020 was a year full of challenges, we were very fortunate to have a strong year with plenty of work to keep us busy and productive.

Our team managed to stay healthy and everyone got into a good groove of being comfortable with mask wearing and lots of handwashing and sanitizing. We understand exactly how fortunate we are to have had this experience, and are so grateful to our amazing team for their hard work and our clients for their trust and patience. We continue to be convinced that the key to overcoming any challenge is to surround yourself with great people! In gratitude for that, we want to take a look back at what we were able to accomplish this year and take a sneak peek at what we have lined up for 2021.

 City House, Mountain House

Much of our time this past year was focused on two big projects: one in the city, and one a little out of our usual comfort zone, 2 hours away in Wintergreen, VA.

Our city house project on West Grace Street finished Phase 1 in 2020 which included bathroom renovations, a new laundry room and updates to flooring and other areas throughout the house.  The kitchen renovation construction will begin in early 2021.

Our project in Wintergreen, VA involved a full rebuild of the back of the house which sits atop Devil’s Knob. The work involved replacing 40-year old windows and skylights along with associated rotted siding (and repairing water leaks that came up over the years).  The crew did a great job leaving the comforts of our usual city job sites and adapting to work outside on a mountaintop! The views didn’t hurt.

Final Touches

A highlight of 2020 was putting the finishing touches on Ron & Sara Villacarillo’s awesome mid-century house. We outlined the entire process from purchase to wallpaper to plumbing in a 4-part blog series. Check it out for all the fun details!

Garage Renos

2020 included two garage renovation projects for us. One began mid-year and just had the final touches put on the two-story garage that we transformed into a home gym. The building was from the early 1900’s and had seen a lot of work over the last century. This meant our renovation included things like removing asbestos tiles on the ground floor and removing a concrete slab for a hot tub on the second floor (yes, at one point there was a hot tub up there!).

The second garage renovation project is just getting underway and requires some massive structural repairs to the 100 year old building. The final details of the project include car parking on the ground level and a new roof deck on the second level. Believe it or not, one of the things that we most enjoy about these city garage projects is the tight working quarters (usually off an alley). We enjoy the logistics involved with the construction and the challenges with little (if any) working areas. Seriously!

 Small(er) Projects

People often ask if we take on projects that aren’t whole-house rebuilds, and the answer is “Yes!” These are often some of our favorite projects because they usually allow us to showcase our design work and carpentry skills.

One such project was detailed in our Front Porch Facelift blog. For this one, we moved a little outside our usual historic city neighborhood and gave this 1990’s house an exterior transformation by introducing new materials for a modern aesthetic. It includes one of our all-time favorite details: rain chains for downspouts which look and sound awesome when it rains. Not to mention they help to gently water the custom-built raised pollinator gardens.

For another small project, we returned to the site of this library build from a few years ago to construct some custom built-in cabinets and a desk. We usually buy cabinets ‘off the shelf’ or work with a local custom shop, but for this job we fabricated it all in-house. A small-scale detail that we included was a routed-out groove along the bottom of the desk drawers in lieu of hardware, giving the desk a clean, sleek look.

We teamed up with a local roofing company to provide carpentry work on the exterior of this gem of a historic house. The wood trim had rotted over the years and our team rebuilt all of the exterior details to match the original work. Amazingly, it was sunny and blue skies for most of this roofing project - a rarity for exterior work!

Behind the Scenes

We enter 2021 as a team of 10!  Bronwen, Seth, John, Pat and Hunter continue their tenure with the company. We’re excited to add 4 new carpenters to the team that joined us in the second half of 2020. They all are quick-learners and have meshed well with the team. We’re looking forward to introducing them as the year progresses.

Our trip to the SketchUp Basecamp conference this year was cancelled but we continue to use the software for our design work. We’re always trying to improve on our process and methods. 

Of course our city saw massive unrest and uprising this summer, which we were able to witness up close. While our work is usually dedicated to preserving Richmond’s architectural history and integrity, there are parts of the city’s past that we are very much ready to see removed and renovated. Having this monument right around the corner from our office was a powerful reminder that massive, demo-to-the-studs change is often necessary for improvement.

2021 Sneak Peek

One of our bigger scale projects for 2021 is the renovation and addition to a Spanish Colonial style house originally built in 1915. We will be removing a poorly functioning addition to the back of the house from the 1980’s and replacing it with something more in line with its style that includes a new kitchen and back porch. Keep an eye on our Instagram and Facebook feeds for updates throughout the year including how details in the project include compliance with State and Federal historic tax credits.

Thanks for following along with us this past year. We wish you all a Happy New Year and are looking forward to 2021 and sharing our work along the way!