A Historic Garage Reinvented for Modern Living
Boulder’s Mapleton Hill Historic District is full of homes with stories etched into every board and brick. But on this elongated lot, tucked behind a beautifully restored primary residence, sat one last unfinished chapter: a collapsing, decades-old garage that had been waiting years for a second life.
The owners had first purchased the property in 2014 and spent years working with the Historic Society to renovate the main house. But when it came time to transform the neglected garage at the back of the lot into a legal ADU, the project stalled. The previous contractor had reached a standstill after months of back-and-forth with the city, and the permit process had already dragged on for more than a year.
That’s when Modern Homestead stepped in.
Getting approval wasn’t simple. Because the structure was classified as historic, nearly everything visible from the alley had to remain exactly as it was. The original garage doors stayed. The small false door on the south elevation stayed. Even the foundation paint color had to match the weathered tone that had been there for decades. On paper, it looked straight forward. In reality, it meant threading a needle between preservation and structural necessity.
Underneath the shell, the garage had no real foundation. No pumping. No electrical. No insulation. No framing capable of supporting a livable space. To build an ADU inside a structure that had to remain visually untouched meant starting from the inside out.
Our team excavated the entire south side and underpinned the building in stages, supporting it section by section while carving out enough space to pour a proper foundation. Halfway through the excavation, we hit another challenge: the water table sits unusually high here, fed by a wet-weather creek that runs just north of the alley. Managing groundwater while stabilizing a fragile, historic structure required constant monitoring, precision, and patience.
Once the foundation was secure, the transformation could finally begin. Inside the preserved shell, every inch of the ADU became new. We framed it with modern structural requirements, added full plumbing and electrical systems, insulated with closed-cell spray foam, and finished the space with warm, elevated materials. Chosen for both durability and quiet sophistication was solid 4-inch white oak flooring, smooth level-5 walls, Taj Mahal quartz counters, and Delta fixtures.
From the outside, the ADU looks unchanged — intentionally so. The original doors, window profiles, and historic character remain, but every inch of the exterior was repaired, stabilized, and refreshed to look its best without ever betraying its past. It’s still the same familiar structure the lot has seen for decades, just finally restored to the condition it always deserved.
The project is proof that historic work demands more than craftsmanship. It requires respect. Restraint. And a willingness to build a future inside the bones of the past.
