Laurel Hollow: a 1920s brick farmhouse with three dormers and a rebuilt white porch, in a mature garden below the mountains
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Black Mountain · 2024 · Renovation

Laurel Hollow

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The home

an old house, a new chapter

A 1920s brick farmhouse, opened up and made warm again for a family of five.

Size
2,900 ft²
Built in
9 months
Delivered
On schedule
Project
Renovation

An illustrative home. Its story shows the kind of work we do.

Before → after

Opened up, not knocked down.

Laurel Hollow after the renovation: the 1920s brick farmhouse with its rebuilt porchBefore · 2023After · 2024

Drag to compare the house before and after.

The rebuilt front porch of the brick farmhouse
01

The front porch

The original porch, rebuilt board by board to the same profile.

The open kitchen with an oak table and a bare brick wall
02

Kitchen

Three small rooms became one, with an oak table at its centre and the old brick left bare.

The challenges

What made this one hard.

  • Problem

    Load-bearing brick walls where the family wanted open rooms.

    Solution

    Steel beams set into the old brickwork carry the floor above, so the walls could open without the house moving.

  • Problem

    Damp in hundred-year-old walls.

    Solution

    The cement render came off, lime plaster went on, and the walls dried out within a season.

Original brick uncovered behind old cement render
Original brick, uncovered
A new steel beam set into the brick wall
New steel beam, month 3
A child’s bedroom under the eaves with a dormer window
03

The children’s rooms

Three bedrooms under the eaves, each with its own dormer window.

French doors open from the kitchen to the back garden
04

The back garden

New French doors open the kitchen to the garden for the first time.

The renovation · 9 months

The renovation

  1. Fit
  2. Pre-construction
  3. Build
  4. Keys
  • The farmhouse as found, before work began
    Month 1
  • The ground floor opened up, propped while the steel went in
    Month 3
  • Lime plaster going onto the walls
    Month 6
  • The finished kitchen, ready for the family
    Month 9

Planned 9 months · Actual 9 months · 6 change orders, most for what we found in the walls

The Ellisons’ kitchen table by the bare brick wall
“We loved this house before we could really live in it. Now it works for all five of us, and it still feels like 1924.”
Sarah & Tom Ellison · Moved back in 2024
Best part
The kitchen, every evening.
Surprised by
How much of the old house they saved.
Would we again?
We’re already planning the barn.

Materials

Brick · Oak · Lime plaster

  • BrickThe original walls, cleaned and repointed.
  • OakNew floors laid to match the old.
  • Lime plasterBreathable walls throughout.

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