A South Bound Brook home rebuilt from the studs after a house fire

The owners called us after the fire department released the property. The roof was compromised, the second floor was open to the weather and the smell of smoke had worked its way into everything that was left standing.

We walked the house with them before anything was demolished. The first conversation was not about finishes. It was about what could stay, what had to go and what the insurance scope actually covered.

Demolition took the house down to sound structure. Charred framing came out, the roof was rebuilt and new sheathing went on before we closed the shell with siding, black-trimmed windows and a new front door.

Rebuilding to bare structure gave the family something a repair never could: the chance to change the plan. We opened the first floor, moved the stair and pulled the kitchen into the center of the house.

The new first floor reads as one room. The entry, living area and kitchen share sight lines, a linear fireplace anchors the wall under a two-story opening and slatted wood panels break up the drywall without closing anything in.

White oak runs through the whole level so nothing interrupts the floor. A barn-door pantry keeps storage out of the main space.

The kitchen was built around a waterfall island in veined stone, with white cabinetry, a marble-look backsplash and glass upper cabinets flanking the range wall.

Upstairs, the primary bath got a freestanding tub, a glass shower with a pebble floor and a backlit mirror over a double vanity. The second bath repeats the same materials at a smaller scale so the house feels consistent.

The punch list was walked room by room with the owners before we called the job finished. They moved back into a house that is drier, brighter and better organized than the one they left.

If you are working through a fire or water loss in Somerset County, we can walk the property with you and put a scope in writing.