There is a special kind of confidence in a house that does not need to announce its renovation from the sidewalk. From the street, this 1929 brick cottage in Nashville’s historic Lockeland Springs neighborhood still looks pleasantly rooted in another era. Walk around back, head upstairs, or venture into the basement, however, and the story changes dramatically.
The Nashville Brick Cottage renovation is a smart example of how an older home can gain serious living space without sacrificing the architectural character that made people fall in love with it in the first place. The project, documented by This Old House, transformed a roughly 1,900-square-foot home into approximately 3,400 square feet while preserving the historic front façade and largely working within the existing footprint.
That sounds almost suspiciously tidy for an old-house renovation. Naturally, it was not. The project involved a deteriorating foundation, an underused attic, outdated systems, limited storage, one full bathroom for a family of four, and enough old-house surprises to make a contractor reconsider every life decision that led to this moment.
But the finished home demonstrates something valuable: historic preservation and modern family living do not have to be enemies. With careful planning, they can even become pretty good roommates.
A 1929 Cottage That Needed More Than Cosmetic Work
Homeowners Adam Ford and Rachel Modahl purchased the East Nashville cottage because they loved both the house and the neighborhood. Lockeland Springs is known for its collection of historic homes, walkable streets, mature neighborhood character, and proximity to the everyday amenities that make families reluctant to leave once they settle in.
The cottage had charm, but charm does not magically create closets.
The original configuration included two bedrooms and one full bathroom. The kitchen offered frustratingly little counter space and storage. Adam and Rachel had converted an enclosed porch into their bedroom, despite the space lacking proper heating and cooling. As their children grew, the family’s needs became increasingly difficult to squeeze into the existing layout.
There were also less glamorous problems behind the pretty brick exterior: aging electrical components, environmental concerns typical of older houses, and a foundation in sufficiently poor condition that structural work became unavoidable.
Instead of performing a string of small renovations over many years, the owners eventually committed to a comprehensive overhaul designed by architect Kaitlyn Smous and constructed by husband-and-wife contractors Javier Gutierrez and Lyn Bowman.
The Big Idea: Protect the Historic Front
The most important design decision was also the simplest to explain: do not mess up the front.
Because the cottage sits within a historic neighborhood, its street-facing character mattered. The recognizable brick façade, roof form, scale, and relationship to neighboring homes contribute to the area’s architectural identity. Nashville’s historic zoning framework places particular importance on changes that remain compatible with that context.
This philosophy closely mirrors broader American preservation principles. When historic homes require additional space, rear additions, dormers, lower levels, and other less visually dominant interventions can allow the building to evolve while preserving its primary historic identity.
So while the cottage became dramatically larger and more functional, a person walking past the front yard would not encounter a giant addition shouting, “HELLO, I WAS BUILT LAST TUESDAY.”
Old Details Were Treated as Assets
Preservation inside the house was selective rather than theatrical. The goal was not to recreate 1929 down to historically accurate toothbrushes. Instead, worthwhile original elements were restored, reused, or cleverly adapted.
Original red oak flooring remains part of the home’s visual vocabulary. Vintage French doors were painstakingly stripped and refinished. An old telephone niche was relocated and reinvented as a charging station, giving a nearly century-old feature a job that its original carpenter could never have predicted.
Elsewhere, demolition revealed original brick walls that were left exposed. Old pine paneling from the attic found new life as wainscoting. Vintage mortise locks and hardware were cleaned and refurbished. The original stone fireplace surround was uncovered again after layers of paint were removed.
This approach is one of the strongest lessons from the Nashville Brick Cottage renovation. Old-house character is usually created by dozens of small details rather than one grand architectural gesture. Remove all of those details and a historic house can quickly feel like new construction wearing a vintage costume.
The Rear of the House Becomes the Family Hub
While the front rooms largely retained their traditional personality, the rear first floor was reorganized around contemporary family life.
Walls came down to create an open kitchen and dining area. The difference is not merely visual. The new layout changes how the family can use the house throughout the day: preparing food, eating, doing homework, talking with guests, and keeping an eye on children can happen within connected spaces instead of a sequence of isolated rooms.
A Kitchen With Storageand Personality
Storage had been one of the original kitchen’s biggest weaknesses, so the renovation attacked the problem aggressively. Floor-to-ceiling cabinetry and open shelving provide practical capacity without reducing the room to a collection of cupboards.
The aesthetic is notably bolder than the historic exterior might lead you to expect. Black cabinetry creates a moody backdrop, while black floral wallpaper adds pattern and humor. Soapstone introduces a timeless natural material, and a large island becomes the everyday center of activity.
Rather than buying every component new, the design incorporates salvaged cedar posts that once served structural purposes in the old basement. They now support the island’s soapstone overhang.
That is adaptive reuse at its best: yesterday’s basement support becomes today’s breakfast-bar detail. Somewhere, a two-by-four is feeling underachieving.
Indoor-Outdoor Living Moves to the Back
Large openings connect the kitchen and dining zone with a long rear porch and deck, establishing a much stronger relationship between the interior and backyard.
A pass-through opening further supports outdoor dining and entertaining. Modern cable railing, contemporary doors, and newer exterior materials distinguish the rear elevation from the historic brick façade without turning the two halves into architectural strangers.
The result demonstrates an effective strategy for historic home renovation: reserve some of the biggest architectural gestures for the private side of the house. The street keeps its familiar cottage, while the family gets expansive glazing, outdoor access, and a layout designed for modern routines.
A Rear Dormer Turns the Attic Into a Real Second Floor
One of the project’s smartest moves happened overhead.
The original attic contained potentially useful volume but lacked the headroom required for comfortable everyday living. Instead of expanding prominently toward the street, the renovation introduced a substantial dormer across the back.
The new rear dormer helped create roughly eight-foot ceilings across useful sections of the second floor. Suddenly, former attic territory could accommodate a primary suite, two children’s bedrooms, a shared bathroom, an open play area, laundry space, and additional storage.
Importantly, portions of the original sloped roof remain visible inside. Those angled ceilings keep the upstairs from feeling like a generic new-construction box. You can sense where the old roof ends and the expanded space begins.
Small Planning Choices Make the Floor Work Harder
Not every successful renovation idea requires hydraulic jacks and structural engineers. Several of the second floor’s improvements are refreshingly ordinary.
A pocket door lets the primary suite close off without wasting swing space. Storage niches occupy otherwise awkward kneewall areas beneath the roof. Laundry sits near the bedrooms instead of several staircases away.
These details illustrate an important remodeling principle: additional square footage matters, but convenient square footage matters more. A huge house can still feel inefficient if every daily task requires a small expedition.
The Basement May Be the Most Impressive Transformation
The basement is where this renovation went from ambitious to “You moved the entire house where?”
After experts determined that the old foundation needed replacement, the construction team temporarily lifted the house approximately 42 inches and rolled it toward the backyard. Long steel beams, cross beams, hydraulic jacks, and substantial temporary cribbing supported the structure during the move.
With the cottage out of the way, a new foundation could be installed using approximately 10-foot-high precast concrete walls.
Once the house returned to its position, the family had something far better than a repaired foundation: roughly 1,000 square feet of conditioned lower-level space with generous headroom.
This is one of the most fascinating aspects of the Nashville Brick Cottage. Instead of expanding the visible footprint dramatically, the renovation discovered valuable space verticallyfirst above the ceiling and then below the floor.
Planning for Future Flexibility
The basement accommodates mechanical functions and laundry-related needs while leaving room for future uses, including potential guest or in-law accommodations.
That flexibility improves the long-term usefulness of the home. Today’s play space may become tomorrow’s guest room, office, exercise room, or multigenerational suite. Good renovation planning does not simply solve the family’s 2026 problems; it gives later versions of the family somewhere to go.
A Safe Room Adds a Serious Layer of Resilience
The basement also includes a dedicated storm safe room, a particularly relevant feature in a region exposed to severe weather and tornado risk.
The project team incorporated reinforced construction and a specialized steel door. For homeowners inspired by this idea, the important lesson is not to copy a wall assembly from a television screenshot. FEMA safe-room guidance addresses structural loads, debris impacts, anchoring, doors, and other life-safety requirements that should be evaluated by qualified professionals.
Historic homes may have survived many decades, but resilience upgrades can help prepare them for the decades still ahead.
Modern Comfort Without Erasing Historic Character
Mechanical comfort matters especially in Nashville’s hot, humid summers and cooler winter weather. One reason older homes can become frustrating is that rooms created or converted long ago may fall outside the most effective parts of the HVAC system.
The Nashville project combined existing ducted equipment serving portions of the house with ductless heat-pump technology for new upstairs spaces. The broader lesson is that mechanical systems should follow the renovated building rather than being treated as an afterthought.
Basement conditioning, insulation, air sealing, moisture management, ventilation, and correctly sized HVAC equipment all influence whether newly created living space actually feels like living space instead of a beautifully decorated storage unit with mood swings.
What Homeowners Can Learn From the Nashville Brick Cottage
1. Search for Space Before Expanding the Footprint
Attics, basements, attached porches, awkward roof volumes, and poorly arranged interior rooms may offer opportunities before a large exterior addition becomes necessary. The Nashville cottage nearly doubled its functional area largely through vertical expansion and smarter use of existing volume.
2. Decide What Gives the House Its Identity
Before demolition, identify the elements worth protecting: original flooring, brick, doors, windows, fireplaces, trim, built-ins, hardware, or unusual architectural quirks. Preservation works best when those priorities are established early rather than discovered in a dumpster on Friday afternoon.
3. Let New Work Be New
A successful historic home renovation does not have to trick visitors into believing everything was built in 1929. Contemporary cabinetry, modern glass doors, cable railings, updated bathrooms, and newer siding can coexist with historic materials when scale, proportion, and visual hierarchy are handled carefully.
4. Spend Money on Structure Before Decoration
A gorgeous kitchen is not terribly comforting when the foundation underneath it is disintegrating. Structural repairs, water management, electrical upgrades, insulation, ventilation, and environmental safety should be addressed before decorative decisions take center stage.
5. Reuse Materials When They Carry Meaning
The reused pine paneling, restored hardware, salvaged cedar posts, refinished French doors, and adapted phone niche give this project depth that cannot be ordered overnight from a catalog.
Reuse is not automatically better in every situation, but when old material is sound, useful, and connected to the story of the building, it can make a renovated room feel genuinely rooted.
Why “Historic in Front, Roomy in the Back” Works So Well
The phrase captures more than an exterior design decision. It describes a useful philosophy for remodeling older houses.
The front represents continuity: neighborhood character, craftsmanship, familiar proportions, and the architecture people already value. The back represents adaptation: larger kitchens, family gathering spaces, generous glazing, decks, improved storage, modern bathrooms, efficient mechanical systems, and flexible rooms.
Neither side has to defeat the other.
The Nashville Brick Cottage succeeds because modernization was concentrated where it could deliver the greatest practical benefit while preservation focused on the portions of the house carrying the strongest historical identity. It is not a museum, and it is not a brand-new house disguised behind an old façade. It is an evolving family home.
Experiences and Practical Lessons From Renovating a Historic Cottage
Projects like the Nashville Brick Cottage also offer lessons that become obvious only when you imagine actually living through an old-house renovation. The first is that the most valuable discovery is not always beautiful. Sometimes it is a failing foundation discovered early enough to solve correctly.
Owners of older cottages frequently begin with visible frustrations: a tiny kitchen, too few bathrooms, dark rooms, inadequate closets, or an attic filled with boxes nobody has opened since the previous presidential administration. Once construction begins, however, the hidden systems start participating in the conversation.
Framing may have been modified during earlier renovations. Wiring might belong to several different generations. Plumbing routes can resemble abstract art. Moisture may appear where nobody expected it. Painted surfaces in pre-1978 houses deserve appropriate lead-safe precautions, and converting a basement into occupiable space makes radon testing and moisture control especially important.
One practical experience worth borrowing from this Nashville renovation is to investigate before designing every finish. A structural assessment, careful inspection, environmental testing when appropriate, and a realistic understanding of local preservation rules can completely change the renovation strategy.
The second lesson is emotional: salvaging old material takes time.
Stripping paint from original doors is not glamorous after the fifth hour. Restoring old hardware can become a tiny mechanical archaeology project. Reusing boards requires cleaning, sorting, de-nailing, repairing, and occasionally staring at a crooked piece of wood while wondering why you ever became sentimental about lumber.
Yet these tasks often produce the details homeowners love most after the contractors leave. A new door may function perfectly, but the restored door your family touched for months while working on the house carries a different kind of value.
Third, family-oriented design should be based on actual routines rather than abstract ideas about resale. In the Nashville cottage, the open kitchen works because cooking and gathering are central activities. Upstairs laundry works because the bedrooms are upstairs. Kneewall storage works because sloped roofs create otherwise wasted cavities. The porch works because it extends the busiest part of the house outdoors.
Those decisions sound obvious after construction. Getting them right beforehand requires observing how people really live.
Finally, a historic renovation benefits from leaving a little imperfection visible. Sloped ceilings, exposed brick, old floors, repaired hardware, and unusual room proportions remind occupants that the house existed before the renovation.
Trying to make every surface perfectly new can erase the very qualities that justified saving the building. The better experience is often one in which old and new remain readable together: a century-old floor beneath contemporary furniture, restored doors beside modern cabinetry, historic brick facing a sleek rear deck.
That tension is not a design flaw. It is the story.
Conclusion: Make the Old House Better, Not Unrecognizable
The Nashville Brick Cottage offers a convincing alternative to the idea that growing families must choose between historic architecture and generous modern living space. By preserving the 1929 street façade, reworking the rear interior, expanding into the attic, rebuilding the basement, and selectively restoring original materials, the project gained substantial functionality without surrendering its identity.
Its smartest idea may also be its simplest: expand where expansion does the least damage and preserve where preservation matters most.
That is useful advice far beyond East Nashville. Whether the project involves a brick cottage, Craftsman bungalow, Colonial, Tudor, or modest early-20th-century house with more personality than closet space, thoughtful renovation begins by asking two questions: What should this house never lose, and what does the family genuinely need it to become?
Answer both well, and an old house does not have to remain frozen in time. It can grow up without forgetting where it came from.
Note: Structural alterations, historic-district work, hazardous-material remediation, basement conversions, HVAC changes, and storm-safe-room construction should be evaluated according to current local codes and applicable professional guidance. The Nashville project is an example of design strategy, not a universal construction specification.
