The back of Kathy Wallace and Sarah Pradt's house in St. Paul gets a lot of light. But for the first 14 years they lived there, they didn't see much of it.
That's because the spaces on the back of the house weren't very inviting: an old sloping porch that attracted wasps, a tiny den/guest room and a small, outdated kitchen.
"The south side of the house was wasted," Pradt said. "We lived in the dark end of the house."
They decided to get rid of their old porch and reconfigure their kitchen so that they and their preteen daughter could all be together in the space while preparing dinner.
Wallace and Pradt had admired a kitchen addition recently undertaken by some friends. "It transformed the house," Wallace said. The architect for that project was Geoff Warner of Alchemy Architects, and they decided to give him a call.
Warner took one look at Wallace and Pradt's house and knew something had to go: the wall that separated the kitchen from the porch and den.
"It was a classic, 'I wonder why they did that?'" Warner recalled. "There was nothing wrong with the porch but it blocked off light. They didn't need more room, they just needed it configured differently."
Without the wall, Wallace and Pradt could get lots more light and a better back entry. Plus, with a modest addition, they could add an eating area that opened to a better, brighter room where the dark porch and den had been.