Ahh! We're so excited to finally reveal this project because A) it was a ton of fun to work on and B) it's actually somewhere you can experience yourself! The Park House is the newest addition to Hearth Homes Stays, our collection of vacation rental properties!
This classic California bungalow was almost 100 years old, and it showed. The previous owner was a bit of a DIY Danny and had "fixed" a lot of problems over the years in a way that was...less than ideal. On top of that, we had all the classic old home issues we had to deal with, like knob & tube wiring, clay plumbing and odd layouts. Here's a peek at what it looked like before:
One of the biggest issues that we had was that the layout was all wrong. It was set up as a duplex, with Unit A being in the front and Unit B being in the back. But that created all sorts of problems. Unit B was only accessible by a weird doorway halfway down the driveway, and it had zero outdoor space. Also, it was tiny! Like, too small to fit a bed, and no room for a stove tiny. Unit A was larger, but you had to walk through a bedroom to get from the living room to the kitchen, and its outdoor space was really small and depressing. Also, the only "dining area" was a tiny little nook attached to the living room.
So instead of trying to make this broken layout work, we switched it to a left/right configuration. This gave both units a usable layout, a private entrance and their own outdoor space.
From there, we tried to save as much of the original California Bungalow character as possible. We saved this awesome stone fireplace, and we were able to refurbish the original Douglas Fir floors.
We repurposed the little dining nook off the living room into a WFH space, and added some acoustic paneling to give it a vibe.
We totally rebuilt the kitchen where a bedroom previously had been. Funny enough, we're pretty sure it's where the original kitchen was, because there were gas and electric hookups buried in the wall!
We also added a proper dining area, with a cute little banquette to maximize space.
We created two really good size bedrooms (both fit King beds!), and redid the bathroom, which was necessary because the old claw foot tub was about 3 soaks away from falling through the rotted floorboards!
Last but not least we knew we needed some private outdoor areas, so we put in a cute Serena + Lily porch swing on the front patio, and created a quaint little outdoor dining area in the back.
We'll be revealing Unit B soon, but for now, you can come stay with us in this beauty at our Hearth Homes Stays website here: https://www.hearthhomesstays.com/the-park-house-a
We hope to see you soon!!
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