Designer Battles Termites and Neglect to Renovate Narrow Carroll Gardens Home

In December, when Jessica Siegel and her husband saw a “for sale” sign in the window of a narrow four-story Carroll Gardens home, they immediately called to make an offer. And were initially outbid.

But the other buyer got scared off by the building’s water damage, sagging floors and even worse problems — so by the end of March, they had the keys in hand.

“It’s the tiniest house with grandest details,” Jessica Siegel told Brownstoner. Measuring only 11 feet wide on the inside, the mid-19th-century four-bedroom came with a swooping curved staircase and elegant moldings.

It also came with the worst termite damage their inspector had ever seen in the neighborhood. But Siegel — a designer at GDD Interiors — saw the home’s problems as an opportunity to start fresh.

“It gave us license to bring back the grandeur while maximizing space,” she said. “On the parlor and garden levels, especially, every quarter inch counted. But we didn’t just butcher what was there.”

By June, they’d hired architect Brenda Nelson from NVDA and contractor Kelly Construction. They started demolition. In such a small footprint, things moved quickly.

There weren’t any unexpected problems — the Siegels knew what they were walking into — but they were pleasantly surprised to find an extra three-plus feet of height hidden by the ceiling on the top floor.

Siegel designed the home’s general layout, room size and placement, and selected every element from the kitchen’s polished marble to the plumbing fixtures, lighting plan, millwork and furniture. The renovation called for all-new plumbing, electric and central air and heat. They tore out the back wall of the garden floor and re-created original moldings.

Blowing Out the Back Wall

They blew out the back wall of the garden-level kitchen, repointed the brick that remained and added a steel beam at the top of the window area for support.

The new window wall was custom made from steel-window experts A&S. The company did a site visit to take measurements, and two months later brought the wall-sized hot-rolled steel window and popped it perfectly into place.

The window “was pricey but worth every penny. It just transformed the whole floor,” Siegel told Brownstoner.

The ground-floor kitchen before renovation

The kitchen’s back wall mid-renovation

Salvaging and Re-creating Original Molding

Because the home’s previous owners made only minimal updates over the past seven decades, a significant amount of original molding was left intact, if damaged by time and water.

When a piece couldn’t be salvaged, the contractor would cut off a good section to use as a model for milling a replacement. He handed off plaster moldings to a specialist to duplicate. Off-the-shelf pieces from Dykes supplemented the salvaged and re-created pieces.

“Everyone who comes in says, ‘Wow! You saved so much! That doorway!’ And I have to give away the secret. The doorway is new,” Siegel said.

In the finished renovation, about half of the molding is original — including the ceiling on the parlor floor. The other half is new. The plaster restoration cost about $10,000 for the plaster restoration and the woodwork cost about $18,000 to restore, Siegel said.

The ceiling moldings seen here are mostly original

Making Room in an 11-Foot-Wide Home

Planning the home’s furnishings took as much consideration as planning the renovation. There isn’t room for a lot of furniture, which meant Siegel could focus on getting a smaller number of perfectly fitting pieces that she loved.

“Everything has to be a pass-through,” Siegel said. “It’s really a different kind of space.”

There isn’t room, for instance, for a full dining set anywhere. So Siegel designed a built-in banquette for the entryway. A long, skinny table and other furniture pieces for the parlor have been ordered and are on their way.

Photos by Jessica Siegel or Greg Witzman