Upstairs downstairs

INSPIRING SPACES, DESIGN DETAILS, AND FINISHING TOUCHES

Renovating an old house is hard enough. But reworking one that’s glommed on to a hillside? It’s not for the faint of heart. Builders in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles do it all the time, though. There, a vintage house with a view often descends from street level, held in place, in the case of this 1938 gem, “by a concrete retaining wall on the uphill side and traditional wood framing on the downhill side,” says architect Jeff Troyer, who transformed this home’s interior and exterior spaces.

From the street, the house appears to be an unassuming single story with Normandy-style hipped roofs and a front-facing attached garage. But at the rear, it emerges as an ample two-story house with rooftop solar panels and a balcony looking south (those views!) over a well-furnished patio and a mid-century pool.

“You can see right through the house to down-town LA,” says Brad Kent, recalling the first time he and his wife, Mandy, opened its front door. “We said, ‘We think we’re going to take it!’ Then we saw the layout. … But then we opened a