The home at 1106 Eutaw Place has always had character – what it lacked was balance. Today, that balance is being built one beam at a time at the rear of the house, where a new two-story addition is rising that feels less like an expansion and more like the completion of an idea that began nearly a century ago.
With 1,140 square feet of new living space, 570 on each floor, the addition is designed to respect everything that made the original 1936 structure so special, while giving it the functionality and scale needed for modern life. On the first floor, the home now opens up into a large family room filled with natural light and a kitchen that has been entirely reimagined. The original kitchen footprint was just 18×13, modest and closed off. Now, it has been expanded to a full 18×18, nearly one and a half times the original size. A ten-foot island anchors the new space, surrounded by a coffee bar, a wall of semi-custom cabinetry, and a dedicated wine rack. It is the kind of kitchen you want to show off, but also the kind of kitchen that begs to be used, where family recipes are passed down, and guests always end up gathering.
Above it, the second floor houses the new primary suite, a true retreat within the home. The bedroom is a spacious 234 square feet, with six large windows drawing in sunlight throughout the day. It connects to a 126 square foot bathroom featuring a freestanding tub and a full wet room with dual shower heads. Just beyond that, an 84 square foot walk-in closet provides more than enough storage to match the elegance of the space. The addition transforms the original 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath layout into a 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath home, with space and flow that simply did not exist before. That’s not even counting the 900 square foot in-law suite being built above the garage, which will include its own bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, laundry, and walk-in closet, but that’s a story for another post.
The ceilings in the addition rise to eight and a half feet on the first and second stories, giving the home a sense of openness that matches its new scale. Every effort has been made to ensure the addition blends seamlessly into the original structure, not just visually but physically. Matching brickwork, continuous parging, and aligned elevations mean that the transition between new and old is completely smooth. There are no steps between spaces, no visible breaks in rooflines. The new floor framing is perfectly level with the original, and the new trusses were double and triple-checked before installation to guarantee a consistent roof height across the entire building.
From the outside, one of the most striking features of the addition will be the 14-foot-wide French door at the rear, flanked by large fixed glass panels. It will allow the family room to spill out into the backyard and bring the outside in with sweeping views of the pool, landscaping, and San Jose Avenue beyond. Inside the family room, five new windows bring in even more natural light. Upstairs, the primary bedroom’s six windows open up views to every direction. The kitchen window, located at the front of the house, overlooks the landscaped yard and Eutaw Place itself, while the family room offers views of the backyard, the garage, the future pergola, and outdoor BBQ area. Every window was placed with purpose, and nothing is being left to chance.
So far, the most satisfying part of this process has been the pace. As Project Manager, I’ve worked on many builds, but this is by far the fastest project of this size I have ever seen move this smoothly. We started in May and we are already finishing trusses and shear walls. We have passed every inspection without issue. Everything has been right the first time, and that is not just luck, it is the result of focus, experience, and pride. Watching this addition come to life and align so perfectly with the lines of the original house has been one of the most rewarding parts of my career.
Of course, there have been moments of challenge and pivot. Connecting a brand-new structure to a near-century-old home is no simple task. Our client, who also happens to be the owner of Avant, has a big and very specific vision for this house, and our job is to bring it to life with care and precision. One of the biggest priorities was to ensure that the finished home would feel unified, without awkward transitions or elevation changes. That meant no steps between the new and original portions of the house, perfectly aligned subfloors, and a carefully calculated roof system that could tie into the old without any visible shift in height. It took a lot of measuring, collaboration, and rethinking in real time, but we pulled it off.
When this addition is complete, we want the house to feel like it was always meant to be this way. You should be able to cook dinner while your kids are playing in the family room or out in the yard. You should be able to invite your extended family and friends for the holidays and not feel cramped. If they end up staying over, the in-law suite will give them all the space and comfort they need. And when you want peace and privacy, it awaits you in the primary suite designed to be a personal retreat.
This is not just a design exercise. We are thinking through every detail of this project with one simple question in mind: How can we make this beautiful, but more importantly, functional? We are designing for daily life, for flow, for comfort, and for long-term value. And with every nail and beam, we are getting closer to turning a historic house into a forever home.