Although the house dates back to 1912 there was little historical value still present. Nancy’s background is preservation carpentry, and I’ve got a lot of experience in historic rehab projects. We’ve saved many old buildings and houses in the past, but those had significant historic character. Nonetheless we are conflicted about the idea of tearing this one down.

We thought about keeping the original footprint and adding on to it so that we could fit a house with a large courtyard on this narrow lot. However, trying to retain the original building (700SF) and add on to it would compromise it and look out of place in the neighborhood.

After honest evaluation we decided that saving this structure is not the place to focus our efforts. We should be concentrating on something new that fits in with the scale and massing of the neighborhood.