Hurricane Isabel’s wrath didn’t deter Kristin Pauley from purchasing the home of her dreams. Set upon a small hill, her abode is nestled into the woods of Hillsmere. It’s within walking distance of Key School where her daughter, Minna, 17, is a senior.
“I purchased the home in the summer of 2004,” recalled Kristin. The home, then, was a basic saltbox style with worn white vertical siding and trim. She submitted an offer on the house two days before the devastating hurricane tore into the Chesapeake region. When Kristin returned after the hurricane passed to look at the house again, it had a new feature: Angry Isabel had toppled a tree onto the kitchen.
The Pauleys moved in anyway.
“Our house was built in 1983 on the site of what had been the community’s tennis courts,” said Kristin. “It was dark, boxy and simple, sitting on this beautiful hill.” For a few years afterwards, Kristin contacted several architects about doing renovations on the corner lot residence, which also had an unfinished full basement, but work did not begin until seven years after the home was purchased.
As her wish list for the house evolved, she realized visitors customarily entered the one-story house via a sliding door on the deck leading to the old kitchen. “I decided the house needed a real entrance,” she said, explaining, as part of the renovation, the house was “bumped out” to add 300 square feet of space — and a formal entry.
Call it kismet. She met her future renovation collaborator, architect Jacob Weaver, founder of Jacob Weaver Architecture of Harwood, in a Prana Studio yoga class in Parole.
After visiting the house and vetting Kristin’s ideas, “Jacob came back with a wonderful design,” she enthused. His plans opened up the main floor, created a new kitchen and put skylights over the new formal dining area in the space’s vaulted, bare wood plank ceiling. Using Weaver’s drawings and blueprints, but deferring to Kristin on aesthetic issues, Karl Hauss of Hauss Krueger Builders, a Hillsmere neighbor, was the general contractor. “Karl was great,” said Kristin. Hauss went to work on the house in August 2011 and finished in February 2012.
With its new red and tan exterior color scheme and a complete re-do, “We transformed a conventional rancher into a more interesting, spacious ‘craftsman style’ home that now sits brightly at the top of one of Hillsmere’s few hills,” Kristin said.
As the building project progressed, Kristin received advice from Karen Fazekis at Benjamin Moore Paints for the soft, understated colors on the interior walls. The entry hall is “Fieldstone” and the main room is “Inner Balance.”
Outside, the hardscape and stonework around the house was designed and installed by Articulate Land Garden of Glen Burnie. “One of the wonderful things for me about doing this project was getting to meet and know so many local providers of services,” said Kristin. “I loved working with them and making decisions together. Each step of the way they were willing to discuss the project and make suggestions.”
Kristin works for the Prince Charitable Trust in Washington, D.C. The trust, a family foundation, makes grants to non-profit organizations, particularly, she said, youth organizations, those protecting the Virginia Piedmont and local food and farmers’ market movements.
She decided to implement some “green” initiatives utilized at the offices of her former employer, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. At Southern Sales Service, a new and used building materials auction house in Baltimore that operates in a 4-acre warehouse, she bought almost all the wood trimmed windows and doors for the renovated house, ceiling tiles for the basement room, a bathroom vanity and the kitchen cabinetry. All of the material had been previously owned.
Decorating the interior, Kristin and Minna shopped for a couch and some chairs at West Elm, a contemporary furniture store in Timonium. Other items they discovered at Echoes Accents, a consignment shop off Chinquapin Road; Pottery Barn, Crate Barrel, and Arhaus. The hardware for the kitchen cabinets was purchased during an online search.
Furry — and excited — Welcome Waggin’
Outside, the house is ringed with low stone walls, flagstone walkways, carefully tended landscaping and, in front, a set of wide terraced stone and wood beam steps.
The main entry to the home is now well defined. Visitors ascend a few steps on either side of the handsome wood and glass doorway. Framed by white trim, the door is shaded by an overhang that extends from the dining room area. On the left side, a rain chain empties into a large terra cotta-colored rain barrel.
Around the right side of the entrance is a deck and another entry. The wooden deck, part of it sheltered by an overhang, is large enough for entertaining. A modern sculpture, “Circles of Life,” composed of twisted iron rods and concrete chunks, created by artist Tom Noll, occupies a corner of the deck.
Inside, the ground floor is airy, open and sunlit. More sunlight sparkles on the polished, wood plank floors. The self-appointed Welcome Waggin’ hostess, Zoe, a Lhasa Apso, rushes to greet us. The two cats, Minnie and LuLu, prefer to curl up on the couch and nap.
Directly to the left is the dining area. A simple wood table that seats six is centered beneath the skylights on a cream woven rug. Next to the door, decorated with trays of succulent houseplants, is a well-loved upright piano and piano bench. Adjacent to the dining room is the kitchen. Two tall chairs, their seats and backs upholstered in chocolate leather, are pulled up to the island, which is topped with creamy polished stone. The countertops feature the same stone surface, set against a backsplash of cream tile interspersed with two coordinating bands of mosaic tiles. The attractive recycled cabinetry has a cherry wood finish.
A low wall surrounding the stairwell to the lower level helps to delineate the kitchen and dining areas from the living room, but doesn’t detract from the open air feel of the space.
Set next to the stairwell is a wooden chest. Hundreds of tiny brass nail heads form a design across its lid and sides. Made by Kuwaiti sailors, it is Kristin’s souvenir from Kuwait. “I’ve lived in Iran and Lebanon, and traveled in Kuwait, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa,” said Kristin, pointing out other mementoes of her journeys.
The guest room is reserved for her son, Phil Eldridge, and his wife when they visit. Their three children get to bunk on the couches and a daybed in the lower level. Between visits, the space doubles as Kristin’s home office.
Pushing open a door marked with a large blue “M,” Minna’s neat-as-a-pin room has blush pink walls with white trim. A modern floral print spread covers her wooden mission style bed.
In Kristin’s room, a country floral print covers her wrought iron frame bed. On one wall a Japanese kimono is displayed. She purchased it in a SoHo shop and wore it as her wedding gown. Minnie the Cat gazes out a window from a cat tree house, set at the juncture of two corner windows in the room.
A look downstairs
In the basement, the same open feeling of the upstairs prevails. The space, on one side of the stairwell, is a rec room where Minna likes to entertain or study with classmates. A casual couch with a matching ottoman, a chaise lounge and a leather upholstered recliner are pulled around the entertainment center. The furniture rests on flooring of bamboo wood tiles.
On the other side, the wall is lined, on two sides, with waist-high wooden cabinets that are used for storing books, school work and projects-in-progress. In front of the cabinets is a comfortable day bed that multi-tasks as a guest bed and a couch.
Off to one side is a large laundry room and kitty “hide-away” space. Another, narrower room, filled with metal shelving, serves as a tidy storage area.
In the downstairs bathroom is the vanity Kristin purchased at the auction house in Baltimore. It is topped with another one of her purchases that day: an unusual, rectangular, white Deca sink. It doesn’t have the usual drain hole, instead the water flows through a horizontal slit at the rear of the slightly sloped basin. With a giggle, she demonstrated how it worked.
“It was really creative and fun to re-do this house,” Kristin said. “It’s one of the most interesting things I’ve ever done.”
