Shay and Brooke Eskew's Grant Park home is one of the newer additions to the Victorian community. With its fenced front yard, wraparound porch and second-floor gables, it blends well with its older neighbors. What does make it stand out is the octagonal shape.

It's almost imperceptible at first glance, but a closer look reveals angled exterior walls that help the house nestle onto its narrow corner lot. The unusual flair appealed to the Eskews, who bought the 10-year-old house in 2003.

Curtis Compton / AJC (ENLARGE)

Shay Eskew looks over his eye-catching octagonal sided frame home in Atlanta's Grant Park neighborhood.

Curtis Compton / AJC (ENLARGE)

The attic of Shay and Brooke Eskew's home was converted into a bedroom with a dormer window.

Curtis Compton / AJC (ENLARGE)

The couple remodeled the kitchen by adding crown molding and a tea-colored stain on the cabinets to give it an antique look. They also installed granite counters.

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"We were looking for a fixer-upper in Grant Park when we came upon this," said Shay Eskew. "We bought it in foreclosure, and we had to replace doors and windows and refinish the floors. We've also done a lot of renovation on our own."

The couple's biggest change to the house was adding a third floor with a dormer. That meant reconfiguring the second floor as well. "We were able to increase the size of the bedrooms and add a bathtub to the small bathroom," said Shay Eskew.

The couple moved walls to build an open staircase to the attic. Before the work was done, access was a tiny set of stairs in the corner of the bedroom — a space the couple adapted as a closet. Another wall was moved to accommodate a tall dresser. The entire room is brightened by windows facing in different directions.

"I love that I can look out of different windows and see in every direction," said Shay Eskew.

Moving walls in their daughter's bright green bedroom created nooks for furniture and room for built-in shelving. At the top of the stairs, the former attic is now a bedroom, brightened with four skylights and a radius window.

The design of the house presented another challenge. Figuring out where to put furniture without interrupting the flow of the oddly angled rooms required the help of a decorator. In the living room, the space is broken up by the staircase, two sets of windows and the curve of the exterior wall as it blends into the dining area.

The couple solved the arrangement puzzle by installing a flat screen on the wall of the staircase and having the sofa and chairs face each other in the center of the floor. Built-in bookcases now hold all of the video equipment well out of the reach of the family's young children. Along one wall stands an antique table with an old typewriter that belonged to Shay Eskew's grandfather. Across the room is a wine rack topped with an antique radio.

In the dining room, the Eskews opened part of the wall to expose the support beams. The unusual angles allow just enough space for a corner hutch. Over the French Provincial table hangs a wrought iron chandelier the couple salvaged from an old hotel. Doors open to a two-tier deck overlooking the backyard. A breakfast bar opens to the kitchen, where the Eskews tea-stained the cabinets to give them an antique finish and added granite counter tops with a tile back splash.

Beyond the kitchen is a powder room spruced up with a muted orange Venetian plaster on the walls. It's adjacent to a small room the couple once used as a home office, but now works as their children's play room, complete with a rubber alphabet rug and toys.

A reworking of the basement created a guest room, a tiled bath and laundry area. The space has also been wired for a sound system in the event the family turns the room into a home theater.

Now that the major overhaul is finished, Shay Eskew said the untraditional design is a bonus.

"It's great for entertaining — you can see everyone because they're not closed off in different rooms," he said. "And it's great for my daughter, too. She can run around in circles through the entire first floor and we always know right where she is."

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