Lovettsville couple
add two-story addition to 100-year-old home Kristen and Tom Chang, of Lovettsville, Va., had been watching the construction of a large Victorian-style home around the corner from their 100-year Victorian. As they toured the site, they talked about the possibility of having a larger kitchen with an eat-in area in their own home, as well as a private master bath upstairs — certainly not standard construction a century ago.
“I was familiar with their house already,” said local vintage homebuilder John Broman. “I had observed their graceful curved wrap-around porch and actually used it as an inspiration for a similar porch on the Victorian house under way.”
An aerospace engineer by day, Broman applies the same attention to detail in the homes he designs and constructs that he puts into building rockets. With fellow engineer Greg Myren, he started Piedmont Vintage Homes dedicated to re-creating the elegance of classic architectural styles. Their first home — a Queen Anne Victorian — sold in two days.
The Changs hired Broman to build a two-story addition onto their home.
“The goal was to build an addition that looked like it had always been there, from the inside and the outside. That meant weaving in floorboards with existing ones, duplicating trim, and siding and matching windows,” Broman said.
A two-story bump-out off the kitchen provided the floor space for a large master bath upstairs. The bathroom features a 9-foot beveled ceiling with a hexagonal tray that raised it two feet and houses a crystal chandelier. The window sash pulls and poles are bronze, and the cabinets were made to look like antique furniture.
The new master bath sports a modern touch with a semi-frameless shower and a platform-mounted whirlpool tub that is tucked into the room with a 180-degree view of their property. He installed pocket doors that vanish into the wall with frosted half-glass panes at the top.
Broman peeked behind aluminum siding to measure the original trim details, made custom milling knives to match existing interior trim and reproduced stone foundation details to get them just right. Architectural-grade Pella windows matched the original size and configuration of the existing ones.
Kristen Chang said Broman knows the suppliers and how to get things made by hand.
“We’re two engineers who are old house fanatics,” Broman said. “We don’t get our materials from a mall. When someone says, ‘What a beautiful restoration,’ I am pleased.”
That’s the highest form of praise for brand-new construction.
