How a Vinyl-Clad Cottage Above the Sound Got a Second Life

When architects Eliot Lee and Eun Sun Chun went house-hunting on the East End of Long Island, the listing that caught their eye was not an obvious showpiece: a Cape Cod-style cottage wrapped in vinyl siding, with a crystal chandelier in the kitchen and a deck that did not conform to code. What clinched it was the setting — a bluff in Baiting Hollow overlooking Long Island Sound.

The couple — Lee is a partner at Steven Harris Architects LLP, and Chun is an architect and interior designer — responded with a full reset. They gutted the interior, reshingled the exterior in Alaskan yellow cedar, added a pergola for outdoor dining, and enlarged the windows so the water view became the centerpiece. The one part they deliberately left alone was the foundation.

That choice had a personal root. Lee, who grew up in Berkeley, California, says the 1991 Oakland firestorm left a lasting impression: the rebuilt houses he admired most were the ones raised on their original surviving foundations, 'allowing them to remain part of and nestled into the landscape.' There was also a family deadline — the couple's two sons were finishing high school when the house was bought, so the renovation became a race to build memories. As Lee put it: 'We made some memories during renovation.'

The work also reoriented the house toward a personal landmark. Lee notes that the home faces north toward New Haven — the city where he and Chun met — and the enlarged glazing 'captures and frames the view of the water,' an effect Chun calls the home's 'ever-changing artwork.'

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Why Lee and Chun Kept the Foundation and Opened Up the View

The Firestorm Rationale Behind a Kept Foundation

Lee's stated reason for preserving the original foundation is personal — his memory of the 1991 Oakland firestorm and the power of rebuilding in place. There is also a practical layer: leaving a foundation untouched eliminates one of the most disruptive and expensive stages of a renovation, and it kept the cottage low in its bluff-top landscape rather than letting it swell into the 'bloated versions' Lee criticizes. The project shows how a site constraint can become a design principle.

A Window Plan Built Around New Haven

Lee and Chun met in New Haven, and the house faces north toward it. That personal geography explains the renovation's core move: keeping the footprint but maximizing window sizes, including a dramatic picture window in the main bedroom that frames the Sound. Chun describes the result as 'an ever-changing artwork.' For a house on a bluff, the glazing strategy effectively turned the site itself into the primary material.

How a Small House Gained More Use Without More Space

The interior choices all point in one direction: function inside the original footprint. Three under-counter refrigerators replace a bulky full-height unit, a slim vertical cabinet works as a pantry with a coffee-and-tea station, an alternate-tread or 'witches' stair' handles steep circulation in tight quarters, and a mirror is positioned to work like a clerestory window, pulling sky and daylight into the back of the house. These are less luxury statements than density tactics for a compact family cottage.

Renovation Lessons From the Baiting Hollow Cottage

  • Keep the original foundation when the structure allows: Lee and Chun left theirs untouched, avoiding the most disruptive and costly stage of a rebuild and keeping the cottage settled into the bluff.
  • Put the budget into glazing where the view is best: the couple enlarged windows across the house and added one large picture window in the main bedroom to frame the Sound — the feature they call the home's 'ever-changing artwork.'
  • Choose compact fixtures in a small house: three under-counter refrigerators, a slim pantry column, and an alternate-tread stair made the interior work within the original footprint — though the steep stair, Chun notes, 'always scares people the first time.'