WELLFLEET RESIDENCE
Massachusetts

Over several years, we worked on the restoration and renovation of an antique house on the main street in Wellfleet, on Cape Cod. The house consists of two structures, a 1700s fisherman's cottage at the rear and an 1826 Federal style house that had been moved across the ice and attached in the late 1800s. The elemental fisherman's cottage was built on wood girts that were rotting and sinking into the sand. A new raised septic system complicated grading issues around the low-lying cottage.

The cottage's foundations are rebuilt with a new masonry basement. The cottage and back of the house is re-clad with white cedar shingles. The main house exterior clapboards, trim, and windows are restored or replaced. Two chimneys are reconstructed and all new building systems are installed. Both structures are re-roofed.

The ground floor of the cottage is reconfigured to accommodate a new kitchen, pantry, bathroom, and laundry area. At the stepped junction of the two buildings, a wall is removed to open the kitchen to the dining room.

A new entry door with canopy and new windows bring light and cross ventilation into the previously dark and interiorized kitchen. Millwork in the main house is restored, including wood paneling around a newly discovered Colonial era beehive brick oven. Bathrooms and bedrooms are renovated and layers of paint are removed from the floor, exposing wide pine floorboards that are naturally refinished.

The second floor of the cottage houses a small apartment, accessed by a new exterior ipe deck and stair. An outdoor shower is incorporated into the stair structure. The new garden includes a raised blue-stone dining terrace above a low stone retaining wall that hides the septic. A tool shed is rebuilt and lattice cedar fencing is installed at the back of the garden. Plantings include a mix of native ground covers, perennials, and shrubs with a focus on summer bloom time. A rose hedge along the front property line helps give definition to the street edge.