Expansion

A highlight of the overhaul is the floor-to-ceiling glass on the north side, which includes a five-panel bifold door. The door opens to the couple’s favorite area of the house, the backyard. The deck is shaded by the cantilevered roof, and Ren planted drought-resistant brush amid the existing oak trees.

Colter worked with Brad to devise a system of shelving that would keep everything in the studio organized and at hand. And then he had some fun—with an interior window that looks through to the staircase and another in the floor that helps bring light to the lower level.

An additional sleeping space is located in the well-ventilated loft.

On the 100-square-foot covered balcony, a perfectly positioned hammock takes in panoramic mountain views in Puriscal.

The façade received fresh paint, as well as new impact resistant windows. The two-story addition rises behind it. “Given that the two-story wing was larger than the existing structure, it was critical for the new building to appear as lightweight as possible,” says the firm. “The reading of concrete, which is an almost universal residential structural system in South Florida, would have been too heavy against the reading of the low-slung wood roof of the original house.”