Many homeowners build on to their houses just to get more space. But Tom Verratti and his wife, Debra Waggoner, were inspired to do more; they included a room in their beautiful Bethesda kitchen addition for a 750-gallon fish tank.
“I love this room,” Waggoner said. “We fell in love with the whole house, but the fish tank did it for us. We saw the possibility.”
When they purchased the home, the aquarium was empty, abandoned. “We were told that kids in the neighborhood used to catch fish in the Potomac and come back and drop the fish into the tank,” Waggoner said.
Contractor Paul Vergara of Vergara Design-Build came in to update the kitchen space and add a “fish room” for what has become a neighborhood attraction.
The previous owners embedded the tank at ground level outside and created an opening in the wall of the home so the tank could be seen from the unfinished basement. It was set behind plate glass framed with Bethlehem steel. They built a concrete structure around it, and it was attached to the house but accessible only from outside.
“That rickety room,” Waggoner called it. “It looked like a bomb shelter,” Vergara added.
Initially the renovation plan was to just remodel the tiny kitchen, a dark galley cut off from the family room. “Both of us could fit in the kitchen, but we could only stand side by side in it,” Waggoner said.
And when Waggoner gave Vergara her wish list for her dream kitchen, he joked: “I’m a remodeler, not a magician.”
He convinced the couple to go with the addition, which begged the question of what to do with the eyesore out back.
Down went the fish tank structure and in its place came the new addition. Vergara resided the entire house with prepainted HardiPlank and gave it new AZEK trim for an Arts and Crafts look.
“It really made a huge difference in the look of the house,” Vergara said.
The new kitchen features cherry cabinets and multilevel gold-brown granite countertops. Brown and gold diamond glass tile accents dot the ceramic backsplash. They added stainless steel appliances, including Waggoner’s dream range made by Wolf. A warming drawer concealed behind cherry cabinetry has made entertaining easier. Two casement windows embedded in the backsplash and two skylights provide natural light.
“Keeping the original footprint of the kitchen would have been cheaper,” said Waggoner, “but not nearly as functional or as much fun for us.”
At the top of the U-shaped kitchen, a glass door leads to the tranquil fish room. It is finished with water-resistant cedar, has an operable skylight and powerful exhaust fan. Colorful stone surrounding the pond compliments the slatelike porcelain tile floor.
Verratti added synthetic plant life to create an organic-looking pond-scape from above and exotic aquarium from below. More than 150 South American Chichlids, fish in vibrant yellows, iridescent blues, neon oranges and with various spots and stripes, create art in motion on a stone wall in the basement media room.
The tank has become the talk of the neighborhood.
“Shortly after we finished the project, we had a snowstorm. One of my neighbors called and asked if her kids could come over to spend time in the fish room,” Waggoner said. “The kids were mesmerized.”
