Turning back the clock in an old West Chester home

Originally the Stefanellis were looking for a one-story home they wouldn’t age out of. They had been living in a new-construction home in Douglasville, Berks County, and were new empty nesters.

“We wanted a house we could retire in,” said Kelly Stefanelli. But she and her husband also loved older houses, which didn’t often come with a single-level layout.

Ultimately, they settled on a 1½-story house in West Chester, built sometime in the World War I era. While it had the old bones they wanted in a home, some of the period details had been lost in prior owners’ renovations, and the layout didn’t fit their needs.

So their Realtor connected them with the West Chester construction firm of Chris Dulin, and Dulin connected them with Carol Quigley, a designer with the Frens & Frens Historic Restoration Studio of West Chester-based architecture firm Patterhn Ives. Quigley is chairperson of the Historic Architecture Review Board of West Chester, which must review changes to the exterior of historic buildings, and a preservation consultant for Lower Merion Township.

“I almost always work on old buildings,” said Quigley. She is particularly attracted to the older urban buildings of West Chester and the creative use of alleys adjacent to the houses.

When she first went to the Stefanelli home, Quigley was surprised to find some unique features. Its six-inch block walls were unusually thick for the area, and she liked the glazed vestibule on the front, which stood apart in a neighborhood full of century-old houses.

Still, for Quigley the objective was straightforward: remain true to the house’s history while providing 21st-century conveniences.

“We tried to keep it period,” said Kelly Stefanelli. “It has a lot of the original features, including most of the heart pine and oak floors.”

And in some spots, they were able to roll back the clock. In the kitchen, for instance, they put in a farmhouse sink to replace a more modern-looking one, added a wet bar, and installed new period-style molding. When they rewired the house, they used switches normally meant for the older knob-and-tube wiring.

Other updates made the home more functional.

The older house had five bedrooms but no primary bedroom. So in reworking the first-floor layout, they created four bedrooms, one of which was larger with an attached bathroom and a walk-in closet.

Given that the Stefanellis didn’t want a two-story home, the much smaller second floor wasn’t a focus of the renovations. But they did replace a winding staircase with straight stairs to the second level, which they will use as an office until they retire, and as a guest space after that.

In the living room, new built-in shelves with sliding wood panels added versatility — the panels can be closed to conceal the television.

The first floor had been lacking an exterior door to the back, so the Stefanellis added one. It’s now more convenient to enjoy their yard, which is larger than most in the neighborhood.

Other first-floor changes included converting a seating area into a butler’s pantry, creating a first-floor laundry space, and replacing one of the bathrooms with a breakfast nook.

A significant portion of the project was invisible, in that it didn’t change the look of the home, but vital for keeping an older house livable: bringing old windows back to life. In the dining room, for example, 50 years’ worth of old paint was removed to make the windows operational.

Renovations have taken a year so far, and they’re not done yet. In the next phase, they will construct a free-standing garage with an apartment over it. The house originally had an attached garage, but it was too small for modern cars and couldn’t be enlarged given its location.

So far, Kelly says she’s “pleased with how everything went.”

The key for her, she said, has been adjusting the plan when the preferable isn’t feasible, such as widening a stair entryway to accommodate larger modern day furniture or enlarging the original door frame to accommodate a larger door. In some instances, the more modern choice must win out.

“You just have to accept the perfectly imperfect,” she said.

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