Completed client project. The owners came to us wanting their two-story, 2,340-square-foot house in Mattos Ranch to feel more considered and connected, without losing the features that gave the entry its character. Built in 2026, the stucco house had brick accents at the base, four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. We kept the tile roof, the blue front door and the small front porch untouched. On our first visit, I asked what they wanted to keep feeling familiar as the rest of the house changed. They named the entry and the ease of the existing layout, so we treated both as anchors for the whole-home work.
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.
The front porch and blue door
The front elevation centered the garage and entrance beneath a modest porch roof. We found that the blue door already gave the otherwise restrained stucco-and-brick facade a clear point of color, while the tile roof and brick wainscoting supplied texture. Rather than add exterior ornament or change the entry, we preserved those elements and carried their quiet warmth into the interior finishes. The concrete porch and driveway, low shrubs and mulch stayed in place as well, keeping the simple, low-maintenance front approach intact.
The lot was flat, regular in shape and 5,116 square feet, with a small front yard and no large trees or slopes. The public soil survey mapped El Solyo silty clay loam on shallow slopes, with well-drained soil and hydrologic group C. That site information helped us keep the work focused on the existing house and landscape rather than introducing a new exterior footprint. The FEMA map placed the property in flood zone AH, a special flood hazard area, so we kept the existing grade and drainage pattern in view as we worked around the front yard.
Newman’s recorded closings gave us useful context, not a style template. Of 89 single-family homes in the data, the median build year was 2004, and the most common decades were the 2020s, 2000s and 1990s; 10% were built before 1960 and 13% before 1980. The median home measured 1,660 square feet on a 6,229-square-foot lot, and 6% had an HOA fee. We used that local picture to make a deliberate choice: this 2026 home did not need borrowed period detailing. We built character from its actual materials and gave the rooms more definition through finishes and light (Newman recorded closings).
The kitchen and great room
On site, we found the main floor already joined the kitchen, dining room and living room as one great room, with the kitchen, garage, dining room, living room and a partial bath all on that level. There was no closed-off room to open up. We kept the island sink and granite counter where they were, then treated the island as part of the kitchen work area rather than making it the visual center of every activity. That preserved the existing plumbing and let the room’s improvements focus on how the shared spaces felt together.
We specified a restrained, warm finish palette that related the kitchen granite to the stone in the bathrooms, and used lighting to give the dining and living areas distinct identities without interrupting the open layout. We installed a pendant over the dining area and softer, lower lighting in the living area. The great room stayed visually connected, but its different uses felt clearer at night. The existing vinyl flooring remained in the shared areas, while carpet stayed in the bedrooms, maintaining the house’s practical mix of hard-wearing and soft surfaces.
The upstairs rooms and whole-house systems
The second floor held the bedrooms, a loft, a full bathroom and the laundry room. We found the laundry hookups upstairs, which meant the laundry finish work had to fit around the existing service location. We kept the room compact and straightforward, and carried a calmer version of the main-floor palette into the bedroom level. In the loft, we added a distinct lighting treatment so it read as a usable room rather than only a passage between spaces. The walk-in closet and double sinks in the primary bathroom stayed part of the existing arrangement; we coordinated the mirrors and lighting with the stone rather than replacing the room’s defining finishes.
The house’s electric central heating, central cooling and ceiling fans shaped our lighting and comfort decisions across both stories. We kept the fans in the comfort scheme and used layered lighting rather than relying on one bright fixture throughout the great room. The electric water heater, solar equipment and public sewer connection remained in place. Published bathroom projects in Newman by Eric Newman also showed that considered bathroom design had a local precedent, but we used that work as context, not as a template; the existing stone and paired sinks guided our choices here (Bathrooms by Eric Newman, ArchDaily).
Before completing the work, we checked the scope against the property’s recorded Residential zoning and kept the project within the existing house. The local closing record helped us understand the surrounding housing stock, but the decisions came from this home’s two-story layout, materials and systems (Newman recorded closings).
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