In the San Francisco Bay Area, houses for sale are scarce, so buyers have to make quick decisions when an opportunity comes up. The only requirement that Bassam, a tech entrepreneur, and Ming, an accountant, had for their first house was a general location: somewhere in the South Bay, close to mountains and nature.

So, when they came across a dilapidated, awkwardly renovated 1,600-square-foot midcentury ranch in the town of Saratoga, what they zeroed in on was the neat and spacious lot. The house was a compact rectangle set to one side—the rest of the lot was open, with space for a future accessory dwelling unit, where their extended families could stay when they visited from Lebanon and China.

Once their offer was accepted, they had the breathing room to think: What can we do to improve the main house? They ended up completely reimagining the house and rebuilding much of it from scratch with the help of Bassel Samaha of Samaha+Hart Architecture, a small San Francisco firm that specializes in residential projects.

As-Is Condition

Bassam: The previous owner had repurposed the garage into an additional living area, so the amount of common space was huge. The kitchen was tiny—about the same size as the laundry room. There was one shared bath for three small bedrooms and a tiny half-bathroom that you had to cross the house to get to. It just felt like the proportions were off and there was a lot of wasted space.

Ming: It was an old house that had been cleaned up to sell, but it had fundamental problems. The windows were very hard to open and close. It just wasn’t very comfortable to live in.

Bassam: But we knew that the property had a lot of potential, and that we could fix it.

Brainstorming Sessions

Bassam: Our real estate agent told us that we could spend a little money and fix up the kitchen. Our original idea was to combine the kitchen and the adjoining bedroom by taking out the wall between them. Then we found out that to take out a couple of walls, we would need to reinforce the roof, which was low. Keeping the roof was going to be equally expensive as replacing the roof. A lot of people have probably gotten dragged down this path.

Once my mindset flipped from doing small changes to “What if I could do a lot of changes?” I started thinking of vaulted ceilings and lots of windows. I used Floorplanner to draw the existing floor plan and then started moving the walls around. The more I iterated, the more excited I got. I sketched out a new floor plan with the master suite on one side, the [future] kids’ bedrooms on the other side, and a big, open living/dining/kitchen area in the middle.

Bassam: I knew we needed three bathrooms—I grew up with three sisters, and they spent a long time washing their hair. One of the kids’ bathrooms is en suite, and then there is a small corridor to the other kids' bathroom so that guests don’t have to walk through a bedroom to get to the bath.

Ming: For feng shui reasons, the bed should not face the bathroom door. So there is a small corridor between the primary bedroom and the bathroom.

Architectural Refinements

Bassam: Our architect, Bassel Samaha, had a tremendous impact. His expertise turned my rough ideas into a well-structured and aesthetically pleasing design. The final plan, with all its details and professional touches, is a testament to his skill and vision.

He created this beautiful porch with a wood screen that provides privacy from the road. He also came up with the white board-and-batten ceiling, which gives it a bit of depth and creates this interplay of shadows. It’s cost-effective since it’s made with painted wood—an exposed structure of wood beams would have been a lot more expensive.

Ming: I wanted a lot of storage, so he designed a whole pantry wall that’s beautiful and lets us put everything away. I think it is worth putting money into attractive storage. I love the kitchen—it’s the activity center, and it’s used more than the living room.

The skylight in the living room is also amazing. The majority of the day, we don’t need to turn on any lights. In the early morning, the big folding door lets in an overwhelming amount of light and a fantastic view of the backyard.

Bassam: You can make something very modern and very spacious out of the footprint of a small house. It’s really joyful, and it has the same harmony between inside and outside.

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Samaha + Hart Architecture / @samaha_hart

Builder/General Contractor: Hummel Custom Construction

Structural Engineering: Hom-Pisano Engineering

Cabinetry Design: Wood Classics

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