South Candler - Decatur

Loving the classic brick one-story bungalow design, my wife and I bought this 100-year-old home in the South Candler Historic District in mid-2007. When we bought this house…it was in sad shape. There was abundant English ivy growing up the exterior of the house. A dilapidated circular staircase going to the “second floor” was a hazard. The backyard was an overgrown mess.

As architects and preservation advocates, it was known immediately this would be a LARGE multi-year renovation project.  We never had the budget to take on the whole renovation at one time…so we would have to “design” the renovations to occur in multi-year Phases.

The first phase renovation was the build-out of the attic space into two bedrooms, a playroom and new full-height bathroom. A non-historic circular stair was removed, and a “hard staircase” going to the second floor was built. The second floor required complete remodel, including new HVAC, electrical, and a new bathroom was plumbed with a dormer window.

In 2019-2020, a primary suite and mudroom expansion was added in the back of the house. This 650 square foot addition allowed us to have a great formal closet space, a large bathroom and mudroom/rear-entry piece. Over the years, other large projects have occurred, such as rear back yard landscape remodel, a new roof, and a complete laundry room remodel.

Part of the preservation of the original home included painstakingly removing ALL the hardware from the doors, removing years of old paint off door-knobs, plates, hinges and even stripping and refinishing ALL the old interior doors. The mandate was to save as much of the original materials as possible, and the addition on the back was thought of as just an “extension” of what was there, and not a “new room”. 

Ultimately, the design’s intent was to have any additions to appear as they are always there, and we just did our best to take care of this 100-year-old house. 

The home was the winner of a 2024 City of Decatur “Design Award”, presented by the Decatur Historic Preservation Commission, summer 2024.