35 EAST HILL

In Tenafly’s wooded east hill Meital and I found a true gem. When we entered this one floor ranch built in the 1950’s we looked at each other and silently said to each other, YEP, this is it!, With its albeit dated, yet warm and expansive living room with paneled vaulted ceiling, its mid 80’s Frank Lloyd Wright style addition, with yes a sunken couch in the living room, we knew this home would soon provide a  not so blank canvas for the inspiration for our next renovation project. We quickly got to work, following our instincts. We designed with a focus on incorporating glass, steel, concrete, stone, and natural white oak hardwood as our core aesthetic, and structural elements. We started designing from the bottom up and the inside out, attacking challenge after challenge. “This home has no back yard, the lot is too steep, it’s a tear down for sure”, were what we were told. So naturally, we didn’t tear it down, we loved certain things about what existed and had been previously created, the energy we felt and had to preserve. We turned the basement with adjoining garage into an expansive living space (including a cozy cinema room, laundry, full bath, office, wine cove, and gym). The basement opens out through three adjacent, wide sliding glass doors onto a beautiful Red Batu hardwood deck and pool with a tiered wooded landscape. To create more flat outdoor chill space, we took 800 square feet of our steep and nonexistent front yard, cut into it, built an 8 ft high retaining wall,  and turned it into a private bamboo surrounded stone and wood courtyard and enclosed magical garden. We completely gutted the entire home, opening the existing living areas by bringing in structural steel, and added 3,000 square feet of living space by expanding the ground floor ranch and adding a second floor. On the roof of the second floor we added a shed style steel standing seam roof and a walk out deck off the master. Meital and I added a few MOKA touches like an open bathroom with teak planting bridge, suspended fireplace,second floor deck overlooking the sunset, terrazzo tiled bathrooms, George nelson lighting, and an open metal monostringer staircase to a second floor balcony/study. The home is a true zen oasis just minutes from the GW Bridge.