Buying a home is a hard enough task for the average person—between finding the right location, price, and style, it can be a months-long process. When you’re two architects, house hunting, at least in the case of Sandy Wolf and Daniel Ash, takes an even trickier tack. “We rented a tiny apartment for a really long time waiting for the right space,” says Sandy. “We’re both picky, so with every house we looked at, there would be something that one of us liked, then something that the other one didn’t.”

At the end of 2019, the Seattle couple, who have their own practice, Office of Ordinary Architecture, found a 1979 townhouse designed by the late Milton Stricker, the first Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice to be licensed in Washington. Part of a four-unit complex, the 1,040-square-foot townhouse had most recently been occupied by Stricker’s son and retained many of its original details, including the kitchen, millwork, and butt joint windows. The windows in particular caught the architects’ eye.

“They are characteristic of Stricker’s work,” says Daniel. “They’re custom-built and fully distinctive. They are part of what makes this house a rare example of Prairie-style architecture in the Pacific Northwest.”

While the couple loved some of the original details, as avid cooks, they knew the 50-year-old kitchen wasn’t going to cut it in the long run. They wanted to address this first, but shortly after they moved in, the pandemic hit, and renovation plans went on pause.

“The only thing we immediately did was smooth the drywall,” says Daniel. “It was a dated orange-peel texture.” To ride out the lockdown, he started working on the townhome’s driveway, which was not much more than a weedy patch with some hidden pavers. “I like digging holes and pouring concrete,” he says.

Over the next two-and-a-half years, Daniel excavated a space under the deck at the back of the house, enclosing it with a timber fence to create a storage space for bikes, tools, and outdoor gear. Here, the patio has new flanged concrete walls and stairs that nod to Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, and a poured-in-place cantilevered concrete bench.

In a money-saving move, Daniel performed 80 percent of the work on the outdoor space, with the total for materials and tools coming to $4,000. A much heftier bill was the $19,500 they spent to hire professionals to reset the pavers and pour the concrete bench.

“When we moved in, the backyard wasn’t very functional,” says Sandy, “but now we use it a lot in the summer. It’s like another living area.”

After three years in the house—and once the pandemic restrictions lifted—Daniel and Sandy turned to the kitchen, updating it with modern appliances and finishes and turning a tiny and somewhat useless utility closet into a pantry and canning room.

The general contractor, Triple Bottom Line Construction, was the priciest part of the project at $35,876 (including demolition and waste removal), but Sandy and Daniel saved on architect fees, of course, by making the design plans themselves.

$4,000 Site Work	$19,500 Landscaping	$6,078 Electric
$2,931.11 Plumbing	$3,146.89 Kitchen & Bath Fixtures	$1,572 Lighting
$10,717 Cabinetry	$9,318.64 Countertops	$12,217 Appliances
$3,350 Tilework	$35,876 General Contractor Fee	$1,760 Sales Tax on Contractor Services
Grand Total: $110,466.64

“Since we’re design professionals, we had a sense of where everything would go,” says Daniel. “There were a couple of unknowns that came up, though. We added plumbing in the butler’s pantry, and it would have saved us a lot to just skip it, but it’s been really useful to have extra space and another sink.”

Working within the kitchen’s original footprint, the architects swapped out appliances and replaced the existing range with an induction burner—a move that gives them more counter space when they aren’t cooking. (All appliances totaled in at $12,217.) Since induction cooktops work best with certain materials, they spent more than they normally would have by going with porcelain countertops and matching backsplashes in a neutral, creamy white, a $9,318.64 spend.

Part of the original design, a long row of wood cabinets stretched across the kitchen and into the dining room, ending awkwardly partway across. “We kept most of the original cabinets and refinished and repurposed the ones in the dining room into stacked shelving,” Sandy says. Local design studio Timbra did the casework for a total of $10,717, which included custom shelving above the dining table, in the butler’s pantry, and on the north wall of the kitchen.

At the far end of the dining area, a small pony wall was removed and replaced with a slatted railing to create more cohesion with the living room below and let more natural light into the home’s core. “One of the things we liked about the house was the material palette,” says Daniel, noting that they kept the original flooring. “Simple white walls and dark wood let us come in and apply color pops and different textures as we saw fit.” In the pantry, floor-to-ceiling pink tile peeks out, adding depth and a fun surprise for a little less than $3,400. “The pink tile was one of those moves that we hadn’t been able to do with clients,” says Sandy.

To put money toward bigger ticket items like appliances and casework, Daniel and Sandy cut back on furniture and fixtures (the dining table is a second-hand score, originally from Design Within Reach, and the chairs are an Anthropologie find that they adorned with colored cord from the hardware store). By the time the project wrapped, the couple had spent $110,466 on the renovation, about half of which was labor fees. Now, with a young daughter, they find the extra space, even in the butler’s pantry with its teeny-tiny utility sink, makes a big difference. “We cook so much,” says Sandy. “It’s helpful to have that extra space. While we’re cooking dinner our daughter can pop in there and wash her hands without us having to stop what we’re doing. When space is at a premium, every inch counts.”

More Budget Breakdown:

A Seattle Architect Gives Her Galley Kitchen a Mod Update for $28K

A Designer Couple Revamp a Tiny Seattle Condo For $13K

Project Credits:

Architecture: Office of Ordinary Architecture / @officeofordinary

Builder: Triple Bottom Line Construction / @triplebottomline_construction

Casework: Timbra / @timbra.co