2204 Edwin Ave

Renovation & Addition

Durham, North Carolina

Construction by CoCreations Construction & Design

• 1,200 SF two-story addition to an existing single-story 866 sf house & 165 sf renovation

These clients had outgrown their space but loved their location so they decided to add on rather than try and find a new house to fit their needs.

The existing house was a small 3-bedroom, 1-bath house with one of the bedrooms being used as an office. Each of the existing bedrooms were quite small, the dining space was shoved into a corner of the kitchen, and the living room was barely large enough to hold a sofa. The location of the bedrooms eliminated access to their large back yard where the kids played, and made keeping an eye of them difficult if the parents needed to be doing things inside. it was also very dark inside because all of the south-facing windows were in bedrooms.

Several of their project directives also created site constraints that helped dictate the design: keep the existing patio and garden space to the side of the house, keep the big oak tree in the back yard, keep the existing side screen patio, and do not disturb the existing solar array on the front half of the roof.

They wanted a 4-bedroom, 3-bath house, with an office, upstairs laundry, a book nook, and a decent-sized living room with access and views to the back and side yards. The site constraints combined with these goals resulted in a compact, two-story addition which expanded the existing bedroom on the south side into the new living room. To maintain the solar array, the upstairs had to extend farther back than the first floor conditioned area. This created the opportunity for them to also add a new screened porch and an exterior storage and utility room.

With the new living room, they finally have space for a real dining table to host friends in what was the old living room space, and the old dining nook has been turned into a drop zone and extended pantry area. The end result is a sunlit house that finally functions well for their growing family, and provides ample space for entertaining and connection to the outdoors.