Completed client project. The owners of the one-story house on Oak Grove Avenue in Knights Landing came to us for a whole-home remodel that made their compact home work harder without changing its basic layout. Built in 1926, the detached stucco house had about 713 square feet, two bedrooms, one full bathroom, an open kitchen and living area, and a small covered front porch reached by wooden steps. The owners wanted better storage, warmer finishes, and a more useful connection between the house and its lot. The design grew from our conversations with them and what we measured in the rooms, rather than from a generic small-house layout.
The photographs on this page are from the Designed & Curated portfolio and show finishes we have used on other projects. They are not photographs of this house.
My first question was where the household felt the missing garage most. The property record confirmed there was no garage, and on site we found no garage structure to convert. We chose to leave that absence alone: no invented garage conversion or addition, and no attempt to push daily functions into a space the property did not have. We measured the actual rooms and kept the work within the existing house. The single-story construction, pitched shingle roof, and inside laundry also helped us focus the project on the living spaces and the lot rather than adding another level or changing the roofline.
The garage that stayed a non-issue
The house had no garage, but its 8,276-square-foot flat lot had two separate driveways that accommodated an RV, trailer, or boat. We kept those routes clear and treated them as parking, not as a substitute for a garage or an outdoor room. Mature trees shaded the lot, and the front and back were landscaped, although the property had no irrigation source. The fenced yard and visible backyard gave the owners outdoor space without requiring us to enlarge the house.
The inside laundry stayed inside. We found its hookups and 220-volt electrical connection in the laundry room, so we organized supplies and added storage there instead of moving laundry toward an exterior wall. The record described the heating and cooling as multizone; we kept those systems in place while the project addressed storage and finishes. Public water and public sewer also meant the bathroom and kitchen fixtures remained connected to their existing services. We kept the tub with shower over in the single full bath and improved the storage and mirror lighting around it.
The open kitchen and living floor
The kitchen and living area already formed one open space, with quartz counters and wood-grain laminate flooring. We kept the connection between the rooms and retained the quartz, which gave the compact kitchen a durable work surface without adding a new layout complication. We replaced the laminate with a warmer wood finish through the shared living area and checked the thresholds at the bedroom and bathroom doors so the new floor met the other rooms cleanly. We also added kitchen storage where the existing walls allowed it, keeping the walkway open rather than filling the shared room with more cabinetry than it could comfortably hold.
The size of this house shaped every storage decision. Redfin’s record of 16 single-family closings in Knights Landing over a twelve-month period showed a median home of 1,421 square feet on a 7,576-square-foot lot, with no HOA fees recorded. The most common construction periods in that data were the 1950s, 1960s, and 2000s; 67% of the homes predated the 1960s and 80% predated the 1980s (Redfin Knights Landing sold-home data). This house had about half the median interior area, so we tested storage against the owners’ actual clearances and kept the living area from feeling crowded.
The porch, stucco, and lot edges
The new shingle roof, updated windows, and fresh stucco were already in place, so we kept those major exterior surfaces rather than replacing sound recent work. We softened the plain stucco with restrained trim and an accent color, and added exterior lighting along the paths and driveways. We also improved the handrails at the wooden porch steps. The porch stayed compact; the owners gained a safer, better-lit entrance without losing the useful parking routes.
The map layers showed FEMA flood zone A, a special flood hazard area, and the soil survey identified drained Sycamore silt loam on a level lot, with somewhat poor drainage, up to 3.5% shrink-swell, and clay content up to 25%. We used that information when shaping the landscape work. Because the lot had no irrigation source, we chose drought-tolerant planting and kept the grading and planting beds from directing water toward the stucco walls. The mature trees remained part of the yard’s shade and character.
We checked the permit scope before the work began and kept the completed changes focused on finishes, storage, lighting, and safer access, without changing the home’s footprint, roof, or utility services. The owners ended up with a more organized laundry room, better kitchen storage, a warmer shared floor, and a clearer, safer route from the driveways to the front door.
We invited you to get in touch about making your own home work better.
