This couple was living happily in Central West End condo. Then they started browsing online.

 By Christy Marshall  /  Photography by Alise O’Brien

Chris Stratmann and Clif LaPlante resided in the Central West End. After years in a 6,000-square foot historic home on Westminster Place, they had downsized to a condo.

“And, then, well, Zillow is a horrible thing,” Chris says shyly. “It is really addictive.”

There in an endless steam of listings was a 1928 gem located in Hampton Park. They saw the slate-roofed house. The yard. “The gorgeous setting,” Chris says. “It was an acre this close to the city and that is what sold us on the house.”

They bought it in July, 2020 and moved in with their cats, Dottie, Blackberry, and Coconut, in November, 2022. The previous owner, a woman born in France, had lived there for four decades. She ran a utility knife business out of the original garage. The house was in need of a serious refresh.

The first item on the couple’s to-do list was a new primary bath upstairs. On a referral from Trivers Associates, they rang up Jessica and Aaron Senne, the principal architects of Studio Lark.

The architects met with Chris and Clif and offered three different designs for the bathroom. “The first two really didn't have this huge construction component to it,” Chris says. “It was kind of using the existing structure of the house, trying to reconfigure the bathroom that was a Jack and Jill before. We realized immediately that we could not settle for just that. We had to go all in.”

And so they went. All. In.

The existing second floor bath and first floor sunroom were removed and a new two-story addition was constructed by Patrick Moore Construction.

Quickly Clif and Chris realized how steep and slippery the slope can be when you start a remodel. The house was still heated by radiators. Not anymore. The painters were (literally, not figuratively) shocked by the original knob-and-tube wiring when they were painting the stucco exterior.

“We were debating whether or not to rewire and that kind of made the decision for us,” Clif notes ruefully.

Entering through the 6-foot 8-inch arched front door (which by today’s standards feels almost Hobbit-like), the foyer was dark and dreary when they bought the house. But the original moldings were still intact, as was the flooring and stairway. The stone fireplace stood ready to warm chilled souls.
But Jessica noted, “There was no real connection from the entry to the back half of the house. You had to go through a series of doors. It was really kind of a maze. It was all very closed off.”

An existing hallway was divided it up into a powder room opening to the foyer and a pantry for the kitchen behind. They knocked a large opening into the kitchen from the dining room and another opening in the living room to the newly added den (once sun porch). The entire house was repainted. New baseboards and moldings were created to match the originals.

The kitchen was dark and small with a wall of kitchen cabinetry in front of a window. The refrigerator stood in front of another and a broom closet in front of a third window. The laundry was located in a corner., “I remember when we first came here, looking at this kitchen and thinking, ‘Are you really going to keep this?!’” Jessica says. 

The couple loves to cook and to entertain. So, no. They didn’t. “We reconfigured this area entirely to provide them a gourmet kitchen,” Jessica says.

Marc Christian fabricated the cabinetry. Old windows were replaced with new custom ones designed to match the originals, right down to the divided lights and paint color. Sourced from Webster Windows and Doors, now the exterior windows are aluminum clad for low maintenance. “They're sort of expressive of steel windows, but not actually steel windows,” Jessica says. They match the 1928 versions perfectly.

The kitchen now gleams with brand-new top-of-the-line appliances and a long island. Clif mans the island; Chris’ sous chef area is off to the right, with its own window and sink. A banquette is built into the corner. A long lighting fixture by Luceplan Compendium hangs over the island.

“[The lights fixtures] really wash beautiful light on the work surface,” Jessica says. “So, of course, we wanted to minimize any visual obstructions within this golden light.”

The kitchen connects to the den with a passageway that hosts the bar. The sunroom was a step down; the den floor is now even to the kitchen and bar. “Okay, so there was a bar here before, but of course, again, all of the spaces are adjacent to each other, so we knew we needed to refresh it,” Jessica says. “We did bring all of this up to the same level for better flow and to provide better, more ample natural light.”

In the den, the architects added features like a stunning mantle flanked with built-in cabinets, which would have befitted the 1928 original.

Upstairs, the architects not only created a new primary bath but redid the primary bedroom as well, adding a new entry into the new addition, replacing two small closets with one whopper of a walk-in dressing room. A new laundry was built. Skylights were slipped in.

The primary bath sports integrated medicine cabinets with TVs, a walk-in shower room, and Carerra marble. And window after window opening to the back yard.

“It’s a neutral palette that is timeless, classic,” Jessica says. “They are never going to get tired of these finishes.”

The refresh (aka slippery slope) went on to other bedrooms and the guest bath.

Outside, the pool needed to be re-piped; the landscaping upgraded. An outside seating area was expanded and a large TV added for afternoon get togethers.

The original owners would recognize the house from the front drive. But that’s all.

“Conceptually, what we endeavored to do was to celebrate the beautiful existing architecture of the house and then update and upgrade for their modern lifestyles,” Jessica says.

And it all started with a simple browse on Zillow.