Wakefield Attic Conversion with Primary Suite

The owners lived on the second floor of a two-family house, with an attic above that held little more than storage boxes, an old chimney and bare roof boards. As parents, they wanted a space of their own. They asked us for a real staircase up, a primary bedroom with its own bathroom, a storage room, a dormer, the chimney gone, and new heating and cooling.

The old house kept us guessing. It turned out to be balloon framed, with wall studs running unbroken from floor to roof, which took some clever beam work below the windows to carry the new loads. Our structural engineer reviewed it, and we went with deeper 2x12 rafters so the new roof could hold more insulation, plus a flush steel beam and LVLs to carry the new stair opening. Getting water and drains to a third-floor bath meant running a new stack and risers up from the basement through the closets below.

On the second floor we took out the old chimney and walls to open the family room for a new staircase with oak treads and black iron balusters, turned a radiator wall into a stone-faced gas fireplace, and did some minor work in the kitchen. The old boiler and radiators came out for a new system. Upstairs, the new bath has Carrara marble hex floors, white subway tile, a glass walk-in shower with a bench, a double vanity and matte black fixtures.