“My wife and I had no interest in buying something that was ready to move in—we were actively looking for a project,” says architect David Marlatt. That’s exactly what the couple found in this Sausalito bungalow. The home was built in 1906, and subsequently moved to its current corner lot during World War II, when the Army appropriated its original neighborhood for the Marinship Shipyards. After that, the house was subjected to years of ad-hoc remodels and renters.

When David and his wife, the ceramics artist Sarah Burgevin, first toured the home, it was small—about 875 square feet—and had a series of small rooms and shed-like additions, with dropped ceilings, one-eighth-inch plywood covering the walls, and institutional carpet. Call it an architect’s intuition, but David, who founded DNM Architecture, wondered if there was more happening beneath those cheap finishes.

“I got up on a ladder and looked up in the attic, and that’s where I discovered all of this untouched redwood framing—and there were two additional feet above the ceiling that had been dropped in,” says David. After purchasing the home in 2014, David embarked on a multiphase remodel to not only improve the home, but also field test materials and treatments before bringing them to clients. Plus, the process of experimenting is just fun for the architect.

Before: Front Exterior

After: Front Exterior

Phase One

The first phase was a quick one, as the walls, ceiling, and floors needed to be addressed before the couple could move in. “There were 30 or so days of really intense work,” says David. This included ripping up the dingy carpet, divesting the dropped ceiling, and removing the cheap paneling on the walls.

Before: Entry Room

In the process, the couple exposed the original redwood roof framework in the front of the house, as well as the tongue-and-groove paneling lining the walls, and restored it all. “It was a lot of sanding and scraping, a lot of elbow grease to get it down to where the wood was clean,” says David.

They followed that up with coats of white paint, in order to brighten the smaller spaces. The only thing they couldn’t recover was the original floor—the couple only found layers of vinyl where they’d hoped for old hardwoods—so they installed engineered cherry wood to contrast with the white finish.

After: Entry Room

Phase Two

For this stage, David excavated under the house to add 400 square feet of living space, primarily in the form of an independent guest suite with a full bathroom and its own entrance. After repairing the foundation and framing, David laid down an engineered bamboo floor, which curves at the seam where it meets the wall and continues up to form a built-in headboard. David also fashioned sliding polycarbonate doors for the bathroom and closet that allow natural light to pass through to the utilitarian spaces.

Before: Front Exterior

After: Guest Suite

Phase Three

Now, the couple needed a principal bathroom. They had planned ahead, in order to stack a main-level bathroom atop the one in an independent suite below. The footprint was small—about 64 square feet—so to enlarge the feel of the room, David added large window sliders in the walk-in shower. The windows open to an exterior garden wrapped in perforated metal, which acts as a privacy screen. This treatment makes it possible for the couple to open the windows and get an indoor/outdoor shower experience in an urban setting.

After: Bathroom

Another room addressed during this phase was a small bedroom that now serves as a flex space, with a couch that converts to a guest bed and a built-in desk for working from home. First, David removed the interior wall coverings and replaced them with polycarbonate, then he built a desk that folds up and out of the way when not in use. The adjacent hallway had also been too dark, despite the addition of a skylight, so David removed the plaster and drywall and installed polycarbonate on both sides.

“It really transformed both rooms,” he says. “I had been using polycarbonate in my work for a couple years in different applications. For instance, in a LEED Platinum home, the south-facing wall was all polycarbonate in order to control light and provide privacy. So, in this house I started using it in a number of different ways.”

Before: Small Room

After: Study Room

Phase Four

For the last phase, the couple added a 500-square-foot addition to the rear exterior that hosts a living/dining/kitchen area. “We just wanted one big multipurpose space,” says David. There’s a large door to connect the interior and exterior, and a double-sided fireplace that gets a lot of use, in both the living room and exterior deck.

Before: Rear Exterior

After: Rear Exterior

After: Addition Interior

David saw the kitchen—much like the every room in the revitalized bungalow—as a creative exercise and opportunity. “I was interested in exploring how to build cabinets differently,” he says—so instead of creating separate cabinet boxes, he built everything in place with furniture-grade Russian birch plywood.

“Over the course of 7 years, our home has been an ongoing project of incremental improvement, discovery, and experimentation—and it continues to evolve,” says David.

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

More Before & After stories:

A Surfer’s San Francisco Home Helps Keep an Eye on the Waves

10 Stunning “Before & After” Midcentury Renovations in Los Angeles

Project Credits:

Architecture: David Marlatt, DNM Architecture / @dnmarchitecture

Builder: David Marlatt

Structural Engineer: Pun & Associates

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Before & After: An Architect’s Ever-Changing Bungalow Evolves Over Seven Years