Noe Valley Glow-up

Let the builder cook.

Mike had set down roots in this previously modest 1910 Victorian bungalow in Noe Valley. Strolling the quiet streets of the neighborhood inspired him to dream of how he might one day transform the modest house into something truly unique and special. He occasionally sketched out different ideas and kept his concepts in a box upstairs. But then life and career pulled him in other directions. He eventually rented out his house for a few years while he worked on a luxury residential high-rise project in Seattle (see First Light Seattle in my roster of projects). When work brought him back home to the Bay Area, he grew restless about what to do with his Noe Valley rental property. The idea of improvements to make it more attractive to the market turned him back to his box of sketches. A few visits to the permit office and he was off. 

What resulted is pretty stacked (both figuratively and literally)! I spent a lot of time taking in the jaw-dropping views Mike had unlocked by raising the original house 12 feet and then building under it. The newly vertical house highlights Mike’s refined modern design, while still paying homage to the home’s Victorian-era roots. Maintaining the original house’s lines both in and out were very important to him and gave the drywall crew a level 5 challenge. The lower level space was primed for indoor-outdoor living, and the incredible backyard is where the house really shows off. 

For this project, I shot with my team over two days and brought in family friends to help me present what a living situation could look like. We spent a few fun hours concepting scenarios for them to act out, and the result was so much more than I envisioned. With a tall and narrow design, the home presented really well in vertical frames. This once modest Noe Valley bungalow has really grown up!