A little house that lives large

A reimagined interior and second-story addition double the living area inside a narrow shotgun house, while respecting its historical roots

- FRED ALBERT

I'm not sure what this house was used for, but it wasn't for anything legitimate," Scott Evans confided to his wife, Donna, the first time the couple toured their new Atlanta home. With enough locks on the front door to secure Fort Knox and a second locked room inside, the 700-square-foot shotgun-style house certainly raised some suspicions. Boarded-up windows, grimy walls, and a rank smell didn't help.

Still, the price was irresistible, and so was the location: a sliver of land in Grant Park, one of the most well-known historic districts in the city, just a mile from the Atlanta BeltLine, a rejuvenated railroad corridor, now a popular pedestrian and bike path that has given new life to every neighborhood it passes through. Having already renovated a house in a neighboring historic district, the Evanses were familiar with the complicated permit process involved and were ready to try it again.

"This neighborhood is historic, so whatever this house looked like on the front, we would have to do a renovation that maintained the integrity of the architecture," says Donna, who, like her husband, works in the technology sector. Fortunately, the couple had a friend, the late Frank Neely, who was an architectural designer and had owned a shotgun house himself, so he would know what was needed. While this was a smaller job than his firm would take on, the Evanses had been friends of his for years. When the couple said they wanted to do a tiny house, he thought it would be a fun challenge.