The wood deck was the problem’s own solution. Boards extended over a grade change that had never been properly addressed. The front entry felt accidental rather than designed. EHS took out the deck and gave the grade somewhere to go.

A bluestone terrace now sits flush with the front of the house. Level, wide, properly placed. From its edge, a curved stair descends through a pair of fieldstone retaining walls, the treads in Pennsylvania bluestone with a herringbone landing at the break. Below that, an irregular flagstone path moves through the planted beds toward the street. The kind of approach that makes a house feel like it was always meant to be arrived at.

The setting is deeply shaded. Tall canopy, a forested property. The planting reflects it: Acer palmatum in two specimens, weeping cherry, boxwood massed through the beds, shade perennials layered between. Nothing competes with the forest. Everything works within it.

At night, the lighting takes over. Low-voltage fixtures run up every tread, follow the path, lift through the plantings. The bones are the same. The arrival is not.
The grade is still there. EHS just made it worth coming home to.

Private Residence – North Star, DE