When homeowners Michael and Terri Rogers saw this low, long box of a house, they dubbed it “Motel California,” because it resembled those highway-side structures. Despite the moniker, the couple still purchased the property because they were drawn to the half-acre wooded lot. However, when they began planning their remodel, improving the “motel's” look by adding curb appeal was at the top of their list. Other items on that list included bringing in more light, creating a feeling of openness, providing casual entertaining areas, and establishing a better connection to the backyard and pool.

Peggy Fisher, design director and owner of design/build company the Fisher Group, Annandale, Va., fitted almost all that the couple wanted into the project. “We did not have to sacrifice much,” Michael Rogers says. Fisher adds that going through a nine-month design phase helped create the right balance of function, aesthetic, and budget. “They had a limited footprint,” she says, and “we wanted to give them the most circulation bang for the buck.”

Fisher added a second story and transformed the exterior of the 1960s ranch by using stucco to create a Tuscan/Southwestern look. To carry that style further, she chose to accent the new front porch with rugged beams. It also has three sets of French doors and is topped with a red metal roof. To accommodate the staircase on the left side of the facade, Fisher added a tower and balanced it with a dormer on the right side. She continued the Southwestern theme throughout the new open interior plan with rugged doors, rounded walls, and rustic ceiling beams.

Moving On Up

At first the homeowners were not thinking of adding a second story, but as they were planning the interior changes, they decided that they wanted to gain space upstairs and that they would expand the original budget of $150,000. Those decisions also allowed for the dramatic exterior changes they wanted. Fisher says that, similar to many ranch house owners, the Rogers requested a more defined front entry. “And the original porch was so deep and covered that the front rooms were dark,” Michael Rogers adds.

When Fisher was designing the new roof, she made a point of creating a porch with a high ceiling. She added three French doors to flood the front rooms with light, and she designed a tower to add height to the facade. To ensure a cohesive look, “the placement of the windows in the tower had to match the placement of the rest of the windows in the house,” Fisher says.

The tower's roof, along with the rest of the second-story roof, was framed on site. Peggy and her husband Ken Fisher, the production manager, decided that this project was a good candidate for prefabrication. A framing subcontractor built the new roof sections on site. Then the Fishers hired a crane to lift the old roof off and put the new roof on — all in one day. “When I left on Thursday morning, I had a one-story house, and then I came home to a two-story house,” Michael Rogers says (see “Off Again, On Again” on page 66).

To complete the Tuscan/Southwestern look, Fisher chose stucco for the exterior. On the back of the house, she painted the original brick to blend with the stucco. Around the kitchen window, she left some of the original brick exposed for a rustic look.

Western Warmth

Fisher made a few changes that improved the flow of the open floor plan. She moved the laundry from the side of the house that faces the pool to make room for a door and better access to the backyard for entertaining. The original entry to the house was in the middle of the front wall. By moving the entry to the right, she created larger and more open feeling rooms.

Fisher says that many of her clients want a dining room, but not a formal space isolated from the rest of the house. The Rogers decided to dispense with the dining room altogether and replace it with a pool room. Once the coat closet to the left of the entry was framed, Michael Rogers realized that he had given Fisher the wrong dimensions for the pool room, and it was too small to fit the pool table. Fisher reconfigured the entry by moving the closet to the back of the foyer. Despite the mix-up, Michael says he is happy with the change because the rear closet is larger than the one in the original design. After moving the stairs around in the design, Fisher finally found a place for them by creating the tower. To brighten the space, she accented it with a custom-made stained glass window.

The Rogers expressed a preference for both Tuscan and Southwestern décor, so Fisher came up with a blend of the two styles. Throughout the house, she specified rounded corners for the drywall and chose to cover walls with textured paint that resembles stucco. She used wrought iron light fixtures and railings, and a copper light above the pool table, and added built-in shelving and a fireplace with a stucco-look finish. Fisher does not believe in buying a family of products, such as lighting fixtures, for a house. “You can buy things that are similar or complement each other. It should relate, but not be matchy-matchy,” she says. Although the light over the pool table has long straight lines and stained glass, it also features rustic copper that ties in with the old-world look of the other wrought iron fixtures. She says that the ceiling fixture in the family room and the wall sconces have similar curves, but feature different metal finishes and glass shades.

Fisher added wood elements by using rugged pine doors, windows with stained wood interior frames, and recycled barn beams for the floors and for cladding the new posts. She found doors made of reclaimed lumber by searching on the Internet, and even ordered a single door to install in the Fisher Group offices to evaluate how it would stand up to continual use. “We were installing many doors,” she says, “and we couldn't just put it in their house without knowing the quality.”

Fisher likes to choose products at the beginning of the remodeling process because, she says, “Then we can do a fixed-cost construction contract and not use allowances.” She handles this by taking clients on a “guided tour” to choose products. “You need to narrow the universe of products to eliminate confusion,” Fisher says. She also asks clients to look at a range of items within a limited period of time (usually a few hours) so that they will be better able to compare how the products will look together.

Rogers says that he and Terri liked having Fisher's guidance. “If we had started from scratch, it would have been more difficult. Doing it all in one day took a lot off our minds in terms of decision-making.”

Room To Grow

Michael Rogers says that having one company take care of the entire project “soup to nuts” was worth the small premium the couple paid. “Overall, the process went more smoothly than everyone said it would,” he adds.

The renovation grew from a cost of $150,000, which the Rogers were originally going to spend, to $360,000. Now the couple has decided to wait a few years before working with the Fisher Group on the next phase of the remodel. That proposed project would include making one bay of the existing garage into a solarium and adding another garage bay. The Rogers also want a new master bedroom above the garage that includes a rear balcony with a view of and access to the pool.

To be prepared for this, the Fisher Group's crew framed the windows on the side of the house above the garage so that they can be removed and replaced with doors. They also installed the infrastructure for a second HVAC zone. During the first phase, the remodeler offered the homeowner the option of wireless custom lighting and wiring for a stereo system. The owners turned down the offer for budgetary reasons, but may add these control systems in the future.

Off Again, On Again

For this project, Ken Fisher, the Fisher Group's production manager, chose to take off the existing roof and install the new prefabricated roof in one day using a crane. “Prefabricating makes sense for a second-story addition because it minimizes the amount of time where the roof is exposed to the weather, which is one of the greater stresses of remodeling,” Fisher says. He has experience both in using prefabricated sections built in a factory and using sections built on site by framing subcontractors.

For factory builds, contractors have to know exact measurements because when the sections are placed, they must fit. The advantage, Fisher says, is that they are built in controlled conditions.

Alternatively, the good thing about building the sections on site, he says, is that the crew can more carefully confirm measurements and make adjustments. “The carpenters would notice any idiosyncrasies,” Fisher says. The disadvantage is that it only works for projects where there is space on site to build and store the sections, and it takes more time in the field.

For this project, Fisher chose site-built sections and worked with framing subcontractor Dan Smith of DTS Construction in Luray, Va. They both agree that planning ahead and being prepared for a full workday makes this process go smoothly.

STEP 1
The Fisher Group crew removed the interior walls on the first floor of the house. This was possible because the ranch house did not have any interior load-bearing walls. The crew also installed new footers in the crawlspace to accommodate bearing posts for the new second floor and the increased roof loads.

STEP 2
Dan Smith and his framing crew built the new roof and walls inside the existing house. It took them three to four days to frame the walls and roof, including the sections for the new tower.

STEP 3
The crew had previously marked where the existing roof would be cut, but —to prevent any issues with rain — did not actually cut through the roof until the morning of the build. Ken Fisher says that the crane operator removed the roof in 4-foot-wide sections. “Some of the first trusses we tried to remove broke apart and crashed to the ground, so we modified our cuts and how they were fastened to the crane. Subsequent trusses lifted off relatively easily,” he says. The crane operator had a hard time placing the sections directly into the Dumpster, so he put them nearby and the crew later loaded those sections into the container. The team had removed the existing roof by noon.

STEP 4
The project called for three new doors on the front of the house, so the crew demolished the front wall.

STEP 5
The new front wall had been prefabricated by the framing company and was the first piece lifted into place.

STEP 6
The new second-story deck had been framed as one piece and included floor sheathing. Although Fisher says that the crane operator was able to fine-tune the placement, Smith adds that this was the hardest step: “Lifting and placing the deck and also propping it up was a complicated process.”

STEP 7
Once the upper deck was installed, the crane operator began lifting and placing the prefabricated second-story walls.

STEP 8
The new pre-built roof was lifted into place.

STEP 9
By the end of the day, the new roof and walls were in place.

Framing Contractor Dan Smith's Tips on Site-Built Prefabrication

  • Plan ahead; do plenty of measuring.
  • Make sure you have space inside the existing house to build and store the prefabricated walls and roof.
  • On the existing floors, mark where the second-story framing will be installed and mark the bearing points. Pull all measurements for the second-story addition from those markings.
  • Make sure that the existing floor is strong enough to carry the load of the addition.
  • Prefabricate the deck of the addition so that it is structurally safe to move with a crane.
  • Once the upper-story deck is built, prefabricate the new walls using the measurements from that deck. Set all the walls aside — away from the deck — and number them so you can place them correctly on the deck.
  • Prefabricate the new roof on top of the deck and ensure that it is also structurally safe to be moved by a crane. Once the new roof is braced, sheet that roof with plywood and completely paper the roof. Run a beam through the center of the “A” so that you can attach it to the crane.