Patricia and her husband, Roger Moskowitz, turned to Rob Morris, president of Morris-Day Designers and Builders in nearby Arlington, Virginia, for a dose of reassurance and reality. "Rob immediately said, ‘We can turn this box into a house you'll love,' Patricia remembers. When I told him I wasn't convinced, he promised to make this home look 'non-split foyerish'—and I knew we'd found the right guy."

The architect is a huge fan of Franklin Park, a tiny corner of McLean that's filled with a mixture of houses from the 1890s and split-levels from the 1950s and '60s. "We enjoy working on projects in this neighborhood because it allows us to rebuild newer homes in a style and manner compatible with charming turn-of-the-century places," he says. "Patricia and Roger's house was an ideal opportunity for us."

Because the house was built on a hillside and had a partially submerged basement, Rob designed a flight of steps up to a new porch that eliminated the ungainly two-level entry. "Building a front porch gave us flexibility because we could then change the massing of the facade and the entire roof—and that automatically changed the way the house looked," he says.

With Patricia's encouragement, the builders then gutted every inch of the interior, with the exception of the kitchen, laundry room, and a small breakfast room addition. Rob followed the original floor plan in his redesign, keeping public spaces to the left of the front entrance and bedrooms off to the right.