This Bungalow is Anything but Basic

When artist Stephen Waddell first laid eyes on the Vancouver house he and his wife, landscape designer Isabel Kunigk, wound up buying, there was no lightbulb moment, no hint of a diamond waiting to be unearthed. "Nothing about the existing house convinced me it would work," he admits. But their architect, D’Arcy Jones, had a vision for the 1,300-square-foot 1940s bungalow: He’d raise the structure, transform the basement into the main level, and turn the former main floor into a bedroom level. "Basements are such a dreary tradition in Vancouver," says Jones. "It’s hard to bring in natural light in a way that makes it a space you’d want to spend time in."