The House That Spent Years as Four Apartments

Falling for an old house usually means falling for its history, like original wood floors, walk-out windows from the 1800s, and a protected historic exterior that has stood for well over a century. The trouble tends to show up on the second walk-through, once you start noticing everything that decades of other people's decisions left behind. For the owners of Grand Coastal Revival, those decisions added up to an 1800s house that someone had carved into four separate apartments. They loved it anyway, and they knew exactly what they wanted it to become, which was one home big enough to fill with visiting family and friends.

Four Apartments Under One Roof

Four separate apartments filled the house, and one of them, complete with its own living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, took up the exact space where the owners needed a family kitchen. The upstairs needed significant repair, the original primary suite was a single room holding a toilet, a tub, and a sink, the house relied on window units for air conditioning, and a set of back stairs had become a safety hazard. None of that fit the home the owners had in mind, so every problem on that list needed a solution that moved the house closer to a place where their family and friends could stay comfortably.

One Goal Behind Every Decision

The owners planned the house as a second home for hosting, and they wanted every guest room to feel like a primary suite, with plenty of space for socializing and relaxing. That goal became the reference point for every decision in the project, from how many bedrooms and bathrooms the house needed to which original rooms we kept, and it's the same thing we'd encourage you to bring to your own remodel. You don't need tile samples or a finished floor plan to get started, but a clear sense of how you want to use your home gives us something specific to design around.

Our Design + Build process turns that kind of goal into a plan you can see and price. Every project begins with an on-site assessment before scoping or pricing, and from there we prepare a strategic design proposal that lays out what we'll deliver and how. Once you sign a design agreement, we come back for a detailed measurement appointment, and our award-winning building designer draws a few schematic floor plan options, with our interior designer involved from the start. Every plan comes with a conceptual price, so you can compare layout and budget side by side and choose the one that best serves your goal.

Room for Every Guest Inside the Original Walls

For this house, the plan also had to work within a protected historic exterior, which meant we could not change the facade or move a single window, so we planned every new room around the existing exterior walls and window locations. To turn the four apartments into one connected house, we took out the downstairs apartment that sat where the family kitchen needed to go and built one large kitchen at the center of the home in its place. We kept the original front sitting rooms, the formal dining room, and the grand entry staircase, which give the house its original character. Upstairs, we reconfigured the entire second floor into four bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom, so every adult guest has a private bedroom and bathroom, just as the owners wanted. We also upgraded the home from window units to new central air conditioning throughout.

The owners' own primary suite needed the same attention. We absorbed an adjacent front room to give the suite space in proportion to the rest of the house, and since the windows could not move, we designed the new bathroom around the existing front window, placing a freestanding tub where the window frames it, along with a large shower. We built the new primary closet around the existing staircase, which turned a likely obstacle into a distinctive design feature.

Keeping the Original Pieces That Still Fit

Turning four apartments into one home also meant bringing back the original features that suited the new plan. During demolition, our crew found a set of massive original pocket doors hidden inside the walls, and we restored them so they open and close smoothly today. We salvaged the original wood floors and reinstalled them throughout the new layout, so the same flooring connects the preserved rooms and the reconfigured ones, and we replaced the sashes and pulleys on the original 1800s walk-out windows so they open and work again. We had a similar experience on our Ship(lap) Happens project in Woodland Heights, where we found the home's original 1920s shiplap under later finishes and brought it back into several rooms.

A Personal Touch Under the Stairs

We also looked for ways to make the home personal to the owners, including the space under the stairs. We turned it into a wine and whiskey room with a barrel and custom cabinetry, and above the barrel we installed a backlit feature made from a remnant of the kitchen's Illuminato Quartzite, a natural stone that light can pass through, so the same stone appears in both the kitchen and the wine room. In our process, choices like this happen during selections, when our Selections Coordinator walks you through everything from tile and paint to countertops and cabinets. Selections come right after the schematic floor plans and shape the final design as much as the layout does, since you can't finish planning a kitchen without knowing the size of the range and refrigerator. A clear goal for the house makes those choices easier, because you already know how you plan to use each space.

What This Means for Your Own Remodel

The lesson from this project applies to newer homes as much as older ones. When you know how you want to use your home, we can design every room around that goal and price each option along the way, so you make decisions with real numbers in front of you. A whole house renovation at Greymark typically starts at $250,000, and a home of this age needs an individual evaluation. Plan for at least 15 weeks for the design phase, which covers design, planning, estimation, and permitting, before you sign a construction contract. Based on our recent projects, construction then takes at least six months for a whole house remodel and at least 12 months for a historic home like this one. For a fuller breakdown, see what a Houston home remodel actually costs and our FAQs.

Before demo starts, you'll have a fixed price in writing. Once construction begins, your project manager meets you on site weekly, and you receive daily logs and a look-ahead so you know what's coming. We back the finished work with a one-year workmanship warranty, two years on mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, and six years structural.

Quick Answers If You're Considering a Project Like This

Can you turn a fourplex or quadplex back into a single-family home? Yes. Grand Coastal Revival started as a quadplex, and we turned it into one home through a whole house renovation that removed an apartment, reconfigured the second floor into four en-suite bedrooms, created a new primary suite, and added central air conditioning. Every project begins with an on-site assessment before scoping or pricing.

What if I can't change the outside of my house? We plan every interior change around the exterior. In this house, no window could move, so we placed the new primary bathroom's tub where an original front window already frames it and built the primary closet around the existing staircase.

Do I need to know exactly what I want before I start? No. You need to know how you want to use your home. These owners started with one goal, a home where every guest room felt like a primary suite, and our design process took it from there through floor plans, selections, and pricing.

One Home Again

The owners didn't need every finish picked out when they came to us. They needed a house that could welcome their family and friends, and one team to manage the work from concept to completion while keeping the home's original character intact. If your own home was set up for a different way of living than yours, take a look at the full Grand Coastal Revival project or reach out to start the conversation. We'd love to hear what you're picturing for yours.

Greymark Design + Build is an award-winning, woman-owned design-build firm in Houston, TX. We specialize in kitchen and bathroom remodels, home additions, and whole-house renovations across Houston. See our work or learn how we do it.