Buckhead home gets extreme makeover

To build up or move out: That was the question Dan and Kerrie Bauer grappled with when their one-story, 1947 cottage in Ardmore Park got too small for the family.

“We had a three-bedroom, two-bath house with two growing children and a big dog,” said Kerrie Bauer, “but no closet space or storage. I had to go down the steps out back to get to the laundry room.”

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Louie Favorite / lfavorite@ajc.com

Dan & Kerrie Bauer’s Buckhead home was originally a 1950’s era home. They remodeled it from the foundation up into the current 2 story home.

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Louie Favorite / lfavorite@ajc.com

The sun room closely resembles the original room before renovations.

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Louie Favorite / lfavorite@ajc.com

The kitchen was updated with a center island, granite counters and an eating area.

• Photos: See more of this Buckhead home

Though there was little the couple wanted to keep in the house, they didn’t want to trade the Buckhead location, the 1-acre lot and the park next door. The solution was tearing the house down to its foundation and starting over. The result is a two-story, gray framed house with about 3,500 square feet. It’s big enough for the Bauers but not so dramatic that it dwarfs its neighbors.

“We leveled it but built off the existing foundation, so we didn’t have that ‘McMansion’ look,” said Kerrie Bauer, who moved her family into an apartment while the work was done. “We wanted it to fit, and we wanted to save the maple tree right by the front door. So much of the added square footage was in the back, off the kitchen, the laundry room and mud room.”

A flagstone walk leads from the driveway to the front door that opens into a square center hall with hardwood floors. To the right, a small music parlor is outfitted with a piano, guitar and a fireplace.

The formal dining room to the left of the foyer holds a large table and little else. The couple used the empty space under the stairs behind the room to create shelves for dishes and serving pieces. A touch of the judges paneling opens doors that reveal the storage area.

The back of the first floor is dominated by windows opening to the deck and landscaped yard. An open kitchen has a center island, granite counters, antique white cabinets and an eating area with a box window. The adjacent family room has a coffered ceiling, stone fireplace and computer nook.

The side sun porch, a standard feature of so many old Atlanta cottages, was rebuilt to the original scale but enclosed with windows. It now holds an armoire, bookshelves and overstuffed chairs.

The first-floor master bedroom gives the couple the option to age in place after their children are gone. The expansion added a large bathroom with a contemporary walk-in corner shower and an old-fashioned claw foot tub.

At the top of the stairs, a large playroom is lit by a wall of small windows above bead board wainscoting. As they did in the dining room, the couple created storage areas hidden by the paneling. One of those spaces doubles as a hideaway under the eaves for their two daughters. Nearby are the girls’ bedrooms, a shared bath, a guest room with a four-poster bed and Dan Bauer’s home office.

Throughout the house, Kerrie Bauer’s penchant for France shows up — in the front-door basket that says, ‘Bonjour!’; the caned antique settee in the foyer; in the rustic sun and earth tones on the walls that evoke the colors of Provence.

“I had so much fun doing it,” she said. “I loved picking out the colors, the fixtures, the lights, all of it. It was hard to be out of the house for a few months, but it was worth doing — at least I don’t have to go outside to do the laundry anymore.”

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