Maclean Street Addition + Renovation

Three years before breaking ground, our Clients brought us to see their charming old house in Princeton’s John Street neighborhood. It needed a complete updating of all its systems (plumbing, heating, electrical), new siding and roofing but also a rearrangement of living and cooking spaces. Over the course of several winters, as the Clients saved for the construction and chose fixtures and finishes, we debated several reconfigurations before settling on a small “tower” addition. This houses the kitchen on the first floor, a laundry and master bath on the second, and a loft on the top floor with sweeping views of the neighborhood. 

MDB was specifically brought on to find and reuse materials in the renovation. Salvaged doors, school chalk boards, deck and porch railings, gymnasium bleachers (now repurposed as flooring) a reclaimed lumber all found a place in the house and each has a story. For example the lumber that’s now the master bathroom wall and bedroom ceiling paneling came from a local animal shelter that was moving locations. Their old building was slated for demolition and they offered us their attic flooring, which was of the same vintage as our project. Within forty-eight hours we had pried up, cleaned and installed the material from a source less than two miles away.