All Projects Jamaica Plain, MA

A Condo Reconfigured and Fossil Fuel Free

Bathrooms Interiors Kitchens
Bathrooms Interiors Kitchens

When a Mothers Out Front activist contacted us about renovating her kitchen and transitioning off gas, we were eager to help. Ever since moving into her condo in a two-family three years prior, she had wanted to renovate the kitchen, but the timing hadn’t been quite right. Soon after moving in, she installed heat pumps on the upper floor of her unit, but she decided to wait to install heat pumps on the main floor until she was ready to do the renovation. Now her partner was moving in, and she was keen to move ahead.

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Rethinking the floor plan

The kitchen opened directly onto a bedroom, compromising both spaces. Designer Josy Raycroft’s ingenious solution was to swap the location of the bedrooms with the dining and living rooms.

She closed off the opening between the kitchen and the dining room, and between the dining room and the living room, turning both of those rooms into bedrooms. Then, she took down the wall between the bedrooms, and between the bedroom and the kitchen turning the back half of the unit into an open concept kitchen, dining and living space.

Before

After

A functional kitchen at last

The renovated kitchen features generous storage and counter space, as well as a practical work triangle and a small counter-height seating area. In place of the pantry storage we tucked a custom built-in cabinet into the unused back stair to the upper floor.

With the back of the house completely open, a formerly underutilized porch became newly inviting. We replaced a single swinging door from the kitchen to the porch with two double sliders from the dining area improving access and views.

This project included a range of additional aesthetic, functional and performance upgrades. We remodeled the bathroom on the main floor and reconfigured the main floor entry and hall as well as the access to the upper floor. We installed a ducted heat pump in the knee wall of the upper floor provides heating and cooling to all the spaces on the main floor. We also changed the gas hot water heater to a heat pump, filled uninsulated walls with dense packed cellulose, and replaced windows in the bedrooms (formerly dining and living room) with sound attenuating high performance windows. Following completion of our work the couple installed solar panels. The unit is now not only beautiful and functional, it is also completely fossil fuel free.