Sometimes, the answer is closer than you
think. For Eva Ray, it was right next door.
Ray had been contemplating a move for a while. Though she liked her Fairmount neighborhood and her 1930's rowhouse, she needed more space.
"Because I am from India, when people come to visit, they stay a long time," Ray says. "My mom will stay for two to three months, my cousins for maybe three weeks. And now my cousins have kids. I just wanted all of us to be more comfortable."
Ray, who is the director of education for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Philadelphia Green program, also longed for a more interesting layout than the typical rowhouse offered.
After several open houses, Ray was no closer to a solution. Then she heard that
her elderly neighbors were planning to move. Gradually, the idea of buying the house next door and combining it with her own began to seem viable.
"Before I actually bought it, I went to Rachel with this hand-drawn plan." Ray had meet Rachel Schade a decade earlier, when the architect had worked on a master plan for the horticultural society. "And I said to Rachel, 'Is this even possible? Can I break this wall down?'"
An affirmative answer clinched the deal. First, there were a few practical issues to address with the new house, such as taking out the staircase, enclosing the sun porch to match Ray's, and replicating the trim, which had long ago been stripped. Upstairs, the middle and back bedrooms were combined to make a master suite for Ray, as well as a hallway library.
