Upstairs downstairs

A 1938 house's deft redo turns the layout upside down. Now lower-level cooking and dining spots open onto outdoor spaces that are magnets for family and friends

- DEBORAH BALDWIN

Renovating an old house is hard R 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 downtown 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 door and wait, there's a downstairs the same size as upstairs?"

The couple, with two young kids, had been renting in Pasadena, CA, and hunting for an old house nearby. But inventory was low and prices high. This house was right across the Pasadena line in Eagle Rock, an in-demand neighborhood in northeast LA.

The family was ready to nest. They settled in, spending a year or so getting to know what they did and didn't love about the place. Besides the views, the house, renovated at one time, held four bedrooms, three and a half baths, and two fireplaces. But two things grated. The bedrooms were oddly divided between two floors. And the galley kitchen was so narrow, there was no room to really cook.

And Brad is a chef.