The rear brick foundation was disintegrating and the back of the house had to grow. So we took out all three floor systems — first floor, second floor, attic — and the house stood open from the roof down to the basement. It looked like a doll house with the back off.

That's a lot of shoring for a house this size. We carried the original timber frame on temporary posts while the new foundation went in underneath it, then built a new floor system in TJI and LVL inside the old frame. The floors it replaced had bump and sag all through them. This one is dead level.

Before any of it came apart we photographed every original profile — the entry pilasters, the corner boards, the cornice — so what went back matched what came off.

The garage was a one-car building and it came down. What went up in its place is a carriage house with three bays and a copper-roofed cupola. AIA Connecticut gave it an Alice Washburn Excellence Award for accessory buildings, judged by a jury of three architects against new work across the state.