Kristen Shattuck had a vision when she first saw the three-bedroom, 1947 fixer in L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood. Brushing aside what she calls “frozen-in-time moments” like the kitchen’s swinging saloon doors, the gold-veined mirrored panels in a bedroom, and the Lucite shell toilet seat in the bathroom, she imagined a home that she and her husband, Greg Saunders, could make their own.

Meeting up with Greg after he’d finished his own tour of the place, Kristen exclaimed, “This is it!” Greg did not share her enthusiasm. “He was like, ‘What?!’” Kristen recalls. “He thought I was crazy.”

Though the house was less than 1,400 square feet in size, it came with lots of pluses: the neighborhood was quiet, the interior was filled with natural light, and there was a swimming pool at the rear of the sloping, double lot.

The couple considered their options, as well as their budget, and bought the place. A year later their daughter was born, and their son was born several years after—at which point the home’s charms were starting to wear thin. “When we bought it, we thought, ‘We don’t need a primary suite or anything like a primary bathroom,’” Kristen explains. “But once we all began sharing the 1947 bathroom, we were like, ‘Or maybe we do.’”

They swapped out the old-fashioned kitchen for a budget-conscious Ikea update and replaced some of the existing windows with double-paned versions. They knew they needed more space, particularly for their bedroom, but the idea of adding on was overwhelming. Kristen had begun scouring real estate listings when she and Greg realized it would be more economical to remodel, since their home had already tripled in value. With a home equity line of credit of $350,000 to fund the renovation, they began looking for an architect.

A friend had worked with designer Ben Warwas, of the firm Byben, and the couple were immediately drawn to his creative aesthetic. “What I liked about Ben was that he was really artsy,” Kristen says. “I didn’t want the addition to look like my 1947 house; I wanted it to stick out in a fun way.”

Warwas was more than up to the task of what he calls “turning a starter home into a forever home.” Calling on his experience building on hillside sites, he devised a plan for a primary bedroom suite that would cantilever out from the rear and side of the house, with space beneath for a covered patio adjacent to the pool. He also enlarged the existing bathroom, while adding a bath to the primary suite and a small deck that connects to the original rear deck.

“Hillside projects are more of a challenge, and there are more things to consider, but the opportunities excite me,” says Warwas. “In the front, this house is one story, but in the back we had the possibility of it being two stories. By taking advantage of that opportunity and putting the covered patio underneath, the hillside really played into the design and the advantage of having a hillside property.”

Warwas caught a break in terms of cost and time when he discovered he didn’t have to commission a soil report for the site—a boon that saved thousands of dollars, not to mention the potential cost of needing a deeper foundation. “Typically, a hillside property in L.A. would require a much more extensive foundation,” he explains, “but we were able to do a very traditional foundation with no caissons.”

$14,400 Site Work/Demolition	$39,000 Foundation	$49,700 Structural
$41,400 Wall Finishes	$2,100 Flooring	$7,100 Roofing for Addition
$350 Hardware	$19,250 Electrical	$19,100 Plumbing
$23,200 Deck	$5,400 Bath Fixtures	$1,200 Lighting
$4,500 Cabinetry	$1,200 Countertops	$15,400 Windows & Glazing
$4,500 Doors	$12,500 Tilework	$6,400 Permitting
$49,100 Design Fee	$18,980 New Fence
Grand Total: $334,780

The family lived in the home throughout construction, which came with its own challenges, like having to use the bathroom in a small, basement-level bonus space at the rear of the house. “For a time, we had to go out the front door and around the outside to get there,” Kristen recalls with a laugh. “But we were determined not to pay rent as well as the mortgage.”

Construction took a year, and though Warwas added a little over 1,000 square feet to the house, the impact feels far greater. Accessed via a small set of stairs above the home’s main level (to accommodate the covered patio below), the primary suite is like a tree house, with a cube-shaped window seat that looks out to the foliage. “The idea was to make it like a nest,” says Warwas. “It’s angled away from the house. It’s not on the side, and it’s not on the back.”

Complementing the window seat, Warwas covered the bedroom’s peaked ceiling entirely in wood—and it was a bit of a splurge. “Doing a wood ceiling is such a game changer,” he says. “It brings so much warmth to the space.” Another splurge was using cement tiles in the vibrant primary bathroom, which has a soaking tub and an open shower beneath a skylight.

Outside, Warwas clad the addition in wood as well. “It creates a nice break between the old and the new,” he says. “Being able to transition formally from the front of the house, which is very vernacular, to the back, which is more contemporary, created a lot of opportunities.”

The covered patio has become one of the family’s favorite spots to gather, day and night. “We’ve definitely become the party headquarters,” Kristen says, pointing to the open wall on the exterior of the new bedroom suite, where they can project movies and watch from the pool.

Though they went above their initial budget in order to put in a new HVAC system and an entirely new roof, the couple say the additions have transformed the way they live. Now, there’s not only room for everyone, but room to grow. Says Kristen, “I had a vision, but I never imagined we could do all of this.”

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Project Credits:

Designer: Byben / @ben_warwas

Builder: CJD Builders Inc.

Structural Engineer: Craig Phillips Engineering & Design

Poolside Mural: Evelyn Leigh / @thepaintedline

Landscaping: Oneday Landscape & Maintenance

Photography: Michael Wells / @michaelraywells

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