The House: Located on a 90' x 200' lot in the historic Highlands neighborhood of Northwest Denver, this house was constructed in the 1880s. Aside from public records, the age of the structure was also dated from the glass photographic negatives found within an interior wall during the renovation. Consistent with the age of the house, there was a parlour, a living room and a comparatively small dining room. The kitchen was ample and a good-sized pantry lay adjacent to it and behind the dining room. The house had one structural problem: on the east side, a section of the solid masonry wall had bowed outward.

The Family: The Owners had five young children at home when they bought the house, and wanted each child to have her or his own room. The also wanted their own private retreat within the home.

The Renovation: We began at the front door. A staircase installed in the 1930s was removed and new stairs, stylistically appropriate for the house, were constructed. A new kitchen was provided. The dining room was enlarged by adding the pantry to it. Upstairs, there were four original bedrooms. As part of an addition to the west side of the house, a fifth bedroom was created on the second floor. On the ground floor, the area beneath the new upper bedroom was given over to a master bath and dressing rooms, as well as a passageway into the master bedroom, which lay within a single-storey section of the addition.