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When Crystal and John Ciancutti were honored by the town on Jan. 10 for the restoration of their home, which is part of the William Fitzhugh Estate on Grove Court, they thought it was nice to be appreciated. After all, restoring a historic property is a burdensome process, full of rules and restrictions.
But this was not the first time they received gratifying validation for their efforts. Several years ago, after their restoration work was complete, they invited its former occupants over. “They said it felt like the house they grew up in, but still felt new,” said Crystal, about the Simpsons, who put the house on the market in 2009 after the passing of their mother Helen “Tommy” Simpson who ran Portola Valley’s hardware store.
The Simpsons lived on the property for over 50 years, after buying it from the Fitzhughs in the 1950s.
The Ciancuttis in turn bought the house from the Simpsons in 2013, started construction in 2014 and moved in in 2016.
“It was a long process; the town was happy we were doing it, but we needed exceptions,” said Crystal, referring to the building guidelines in Portola Valley that limit how tall a house can be and how it’s supposed to fit into the hillside. “Portola Valley wants to maintain the rural feel.”
Looking at photos of the house from the 1920s, and talking to town historian Nancy Lund as well as neighbors and temporary occupants of the house, helped them understand the blueprint of the place.
At any rate, they were free to change things on the inside as they pleased. “The requirements of the town were that you keep the outside of the house looking the same,” Crystal said.
The house is on a hill, which is why it’s two stories high from the front, but three at the back due to the elevation. “The town really worked with us for the adjustments we needed to make to make it a modern house,” she said, grateful for the support. “The staff at the time were advocates for the work we were doing, bringing it through the committee process.”
Built in 1917, this was the second house on the Fitzhugh property. The other one, which is next door, was built in 1914.
“The guests of the Fitzhughs would stay in tents on platforms under the oak trees,” she said, who believes her house was built to create more space for visitors.
“We didn’t buy it because it was a historic house, but we liked a lot of things that came with it being a historic house,” she said, referencing aspects like the staircase and the old wood — first-growth Douglas fir and first-growth redwood, no less.
“We had a deep connection to the wood and the wood paneling. That was the big attraction for us,” she said.
A lot of the wood in the house, such as the redwood boards in the dining room, had to be stripped, re-finished and put back up. “When we were taking the house apart, we saw that one of the boards had a Wells Fargo shipping label on it,” she said, acknowledging the hidden history of lumber mills inherent in the structure. “It was shipped to the port of Redwood City and then brought to the house.”
The work also included taking off all the board and batten on the outside and removing a lot of the wood paneling on the inside, while reusing all the good parts. As for the bits that could not be reused, luckily, her father-in-law has a wood salvage business in Mendocino and was able to provide supplemental wood for the process.
Taking an entire house “down to the studs,” adding new bedrooms, bathrooms, coatrooms and pantries to it, while honoring its original footprint, is a difficult task.
“There was no foundation,” Crystal said.
The process involved digging to create a foundation, re-doing the lower level of the house completely and then putting the house back on top of it.
“We lifted the top two floors of the house up on what looked like Jenga blocks,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re getting into with an old house till you take it apart, and once you take it apart, you don’t have a lot of options on how you put it back together.”
Challenges ranged from the mundane to the outlandish.
There were a hundred thousand bees living in the walls, that had to be relocated, a job for which the Ciancuttis sought the services of famous beekeeper Art Hall. The process was not without incident — some of the professionals conducting a soil test got attacked by the bees while working.
The attic no longer smells of beeswax, but there are many hexagon-themed tiles in the house, in homage to the re-homed bees.
Another big addition the Ciancuttis made was an indoor entrance to the downstairs area. Previously, one had to go down a “rickety outdoor staircase” to get to the lower level, which was originally an area used to do laundry and servants’ quarters.
The Fitzhugh kitchen and sunroom area used to be a deck. The Ciancuttis had the area reconfigured and did away with asbestos in the space. In fact, some of these changes were actually a way of reverting to the old structure. “We added a small deck off the primary suite upstairs, but according to someone who lived in the house in 1950s, there had been a deck up there back then,” she said.
While they got rid of the giant chimney that went through the center of the house they kept the original fireplace. “We couldn’t touch the staircase, because it wasn’t to modern code,” she said.
“So it got lifted up and put back down.”
Somewhere around 2014 or so, while the restoration was underway and the house was up on stilts, there were two earthquakes in the area, one of which was centered in Ladera. The Ciancuttis — who lived close by in the Woodside Highlands neighborhood, in a house they’d purchased in 2006 — happened to be traveling out of state at time. No damage was done, “but it made us nervous!”
Though most of their neighbors were supportive of the project, a few locals made things difficult and claimed they were changing the feel of the area. They stifled restoration efforts by protesting, for instance, when the Ciancuttis tried to connect to the sewer.
Of course, the naysayers didn’t deter the Ciancuttis from doing what they needed to do.
“We have a lot of pride in the house. It does make us feel more connected to Portola Valley,” she said, appreciating the introspection and decision making the restoration brought with it. “When you build or renovate a home from scratch, it makes it yours in a way that moving into a home that’s already made doesn’t.”
The Ciancuttis like belonging to a small community. Her grandparents lived in Portola Valley so growing up she was familiar with the town and cherishes her ties to the town.
Today, their home is a modern house with over a 100 years of history. They don’t have any of the power and insulation-related problems of an old house, but nonetheless enjoy the story, the feel and the history attached to it. After all, there’s a lot to be said for a gas fireplace with a remote control nestled within an ancient house with solar panels on the garage, isn’t there?
“The balance is nice,” she said, delighting in the “happy medium” between old charm and contemporary convenience.
Though the mammoth task of restoring Fitzhugh Home is behind them, the Ciancuttis still have plans for the outdoor space on the property, like an accessory dwelling unit and a pool.