2514 NE 18th Avenue - Description

2514 NE 18th Avenue
Thoughtfully Detailed Expansion of a Traditional Styled Home

As the appeal of the Irvington neighborhood continues to grow, it's become ever more difficult to find just the "right" house in the neighborhood. Sometimes a practical solution is to take an existing, available house and transform it into the dream house that isn't currently on the market. That's what has occurred in the case of this home, originally a modest Dutch Colonial, purchased by life-long Irvington residents who wanted to stay in the neighborhood as their family and space requirements grew, but who didn't find what they wanted on the market. Tapping into the creativity of local Portland architect Dave Spritzer of DMS Architects, they transformed the existing house to gain both greater space but also reallocated and rearranged space. That they accomplished this transformation while preserving the home's streetscape character very much in keeping with the historic homes around it, was an important factor in its selection for the Tour this year.

Almost every room in the home has been repurposed. The sitting room with fireplace was formerly a dining room without one. The rear bedroom, with its accessible bath and zero threshold shower, was the former kitchen. The current dining room, along with the mud room behind it was once the living room. Now the kitchen is housed in the addition, along with a dramatic great room that serves as the major gathering place in the house.

Upstairs the reshaping continued. The bedrooms are in their original configuration, but all the doorways were raised about four inches, a trick that makes the ceilings feel higher. The stair banister is original, but it too was raised four inches for safety. A central vacuum system was cleverly installed in the old laundry chute. And the upper level of the addition now houses a large master suite.

Outside, a new system of paths, patios, and fenced areas help to ground the house in its surroundings and provide lovely spaces for entertaining.

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