An Uptown Whole-Home Renovation

When the Marchand family purchased the 1910 bungalow on Fontainebleau Drive, it had been a rental for thirty years. The bones were sound — the original longleaf pine floors still flat and tight, the plaster walls largely intact, the wide front porch structurally solid. But every major system was at or past the end of its useful life, and the interior layout reflected decades of piecemeal decisions rather than any coherent vision. We approached the project in two phases across eight months. Phase one was infrastructure: full electrical rewire to modern code, new plumbing trunk lines, a ducted mini-split system designed to work with the house's natural cross-ventilation rather than fight it, and a roof replacement that matches the historic neighborhood palette. We also underpinned a section of the rear foundation that had settled unevenly — a common condition in this part of Uptown given the soil movement. Phase two was the interior. We removed a non-original partition wall that had divided the living and dining rooms, restoring the open plan the house was originally drawn around. The kitchen was reconfigured around a new center island in deep navy with honed marble on top — the visual anchor of the room — paired with simple white uppers above to keep the eye moving. Floor-to-ceiling built-ins in white oak frame the dining area and absorb the storage that used to spill out across three rooms. We refinished the original pine floors throughout and matched new millwork to existing profiles wherever the old casework had been pulled out by past renters. The Marchands moved in with a home that feels authentically itself again: the high ceilings, wide halls, and covered porch that define the bungalow type — but with systems and storage that will carry them through the next generation of family life.