From the Collection
Preserving What Made It Special
The Adams Street renovation in St. Helena, and why the goal was never to make an old house look new.
A great old house
The Adams Street home in St. Helena started with a great old house, a lot of original character and a very long list of things that needed attention. It became a comprehensive whole-house renovation.
Down to the bones, where necessary
The work went down to the bones where it had to. Structural issues were corrected, the interior was rebuilt, major systems were replaced, windows and doors were replaced, new cabinetry and finishes were added, and the exterior and landscape were completely reworked.
“Where necessary” carries a lot of weight in a project like this. Taking an older house apart is not the goal. For a homeowner planning similar work, it is worth asking which existing elements can remain and what needs further assessment. Those decisions depend on the actual conditions and on keeping the character of the house in view.
Character as part of the brief
“The objective was never to make an old house look like a brand-new house. It was to preserve what made it special while making everything else work the way it should.”
Christopher Regalado
For a homeowner, that means naming what makes a house special before the work begins, and treating those qualities as part of the brief rather than as decoration to be added back at the end. Proportions, the way rooms open to one another, the relationship between the house and its garden: these are design decisions as real as any finish selection, and they are easier to discuss and protect when they are written down early.
Belonging to its street
“That is probably what I like most about the finished project. It still looks like it belongs here.”
Christopher Regalado
Final inspections passed, professional photography was completed and the Adams Street project was finished. The photographs in The Manzanita Collection show the completed renovation.