They Thought Remodeling Could Wait. Then a Tree Fell on the House.

When Dana and Jay Vasser purchased a midcentury-fashionable property in Pelham Manor, N.Y., in Westchester County, they figured they could renovate it — at some place.

Then the majestic pine tree that towered above the house arrived crashing down on top of it during a storm in the spring of 2018, and the Vassers found by themselves compelled into a development challenge they hadn’t planned on.

“It was about a 100-foot-tall pine tree in our front yard, and the trunk just snapped about 15 toes up, and it fell immediately across the dwelling,” stated Mr. Vasser, 40, who performs in finance.

“That was the catalyst that made us start out transferring a lot more immediately than we possibly wanted to,” stated Ms. Vasser, 41, who works in human methods for a economical enterprise. “But in the stop, it labored out properly.”

The tree didn’t crush the residence, but it did tear a gap in the roof that authorized h2o inside of when it rained and harmed a sunroom so poorly that it experienced to be boarded up.

When the Vassers acquired the household in 2013, for $920,000, they had supplied the old kitchen area a basic update, with white cabinets and white marble counters, but had remaining most every little thing else as is. “It was a incredibly rapid and pain-free brightening of the kitchen, because we each knew that at some position we ended up heading to do a even larger renovation,” Ms. Vasser explained.

By the time the tree toppled, they had two youngsters — Sophie, now 8, and Drew, 5 — and, confronted with the prospect of important design, they resolved there was no far better time to create the household household they wished.

Intended in 1961 by Harold and Judith Edelman, a partner-and-wife crew who launched an architecture company now recognized as ESKW/Architects, the minimal-slung rectangular box of a house had quite a few things the Vassers liked, including plenty of organic mild, a spacious dwelling home and wooden ceilings supported by hefty uncovered beams. When the couple started interviewing architects for the renovation, they ended up surprised that several wished to erase those initial information.

“A good deal of these architects would come in and want to blast by means of the partitions, consider down the lovely redwood-beamed ceilings and matters like that,” Ms. Vasser claimed. “But we mentioned, ‘No, which is the natural beauty of it.’ Residences do not get created like this any more.”

So they have been relieved when they commenced chatting with Scott Specht, the founding principal of Specht Architects, who understood the home’s merits and prompt a additional nuanced solution.

“It was an attention-grabbing proposition, this residence,” Mr. Specht explained, noting that it had presently been modified and embellished in uncomfortable means above the many years. “It had some excellent features and features to it, but there had been also things that had deteriorated over and above maintenance.”

And there were being other experimental attributes, he reported “like applying jalousie windows” — designed from glass louvers — “which are excellent for a heat climate but not so very good in the Northeast.”

With the intention of maintaining the home’s primary spirit though updating it for energy performance and a far more modern way of residing, Mr. Specht received to do the job. In consultation with the Vassers, he resolved to keep the first footprint, but to generate additional room by enclosing an out of doors patio formerly beneath the back again deck to extend the walkout basement, bringing the size of the home up to about 3,850 sq. ft. The formerly unfinished basement now consists of a guest suite, a analyze, a gymnasium and a den with a golfing simulator for Mr. Vasser, an avid golfer.

Upstairs, Mr. Specht reworked the flooring strategy. “One of our jobs was to produce a true sense of procession into residence,” he said.

The initial front doorway led specifically into the living space, and there was no awning outside to offer safety from the weather, so Mr. Specht moved the opening, tucking it deeper under the roof to develop a recessed entry, and reoriented the rooms within to build a proper foyer.

At the Vassers’ request, he moved, expanded and opened up the kitchen area, which was earlier in a separate area. Now it accommodates a substantial central island and flows into the dwelling-and-dining space. He also replaced the outdated, damaged sunroom with a house business office.

Along with new windows and doorways, Mr. Specht extra insulation in the walls and earlier mentioned the ceiling (in which there was previously none) to improve vitality effectiveness. He also re-clad the overall dwelling in a blend of stucco and ipe siding.

For the new facade, he developed a wall a little better and extended than the rest of the home. It capabilities “like a proscenium,” he said, obscuring the vents and pipes on the flat roof and earning the dwelling seem extended from the road.

Nearly just a year just after development began in November 2018, the Vassers moved back again into their overhauled modernist dwelling when the ending touches were being still currently being completed. The project was finally concluded in January 2020, at a expense of about $300 a square foot.

When the pandemic struck a couple of months afterwards and the relatives was caught working and discovering remotely in their new house, “we felt incredibly fortuitous to have this,” Mr. Vasser explained. “It was like, ‘What a fantastic place to devote all our time.’”

The task, born of a setback, has rewarded the family members with a dwelling they like.

“The frequent regions in this household are just so inviting now,” Ms. Vasser explained. “We normally want to be hanging out below with each other.”

For weekly e mail updates on residential genuine estate information, indicator up listed here. Stick to us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.