Silver Spring, Md. house | A 1951 Charles Goodman-designed house in the Hammond Wood neighborhood ist listed at $829,000.
The house was not in great shape when they acquired it. The biggest challenge was that the basement windows were buried in mud, trapping moisture and rotting the window frames and support columns.To fix the problem, they raised the structure, inserted new window frames and support columns, attached them to the foundation and added back the glass.
With the mud removed, the lower level now is a light-filled space with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a family room that opens to a patio with an outdoor fireplace. The main level has a living-dining area, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Starter houses such as this one are often in jeopardy of being razed. The land tends to be more valuable than the house. For most developers, it makes more sense financially to build a new house than restore the existing one, even one designed by a famous architect. But Cook has long wanted to demonstrate that homes like this one still have value and can work for today’s families. He considers his work on these houses to be architectural restoration or historic preservation.