‘It was worth it’ couple says of renovation of wood house in Palm Beach – Palm Beach Daily News

Wood houses rock, say Sally and Brooks Ricca.

The two houses where we raised our children? Both are wooden, and I found them, Brooks says. We have an affinity for wood homes.

One of those houses is at 267 Dunbar Road, which the Riccas have owned for 29 years. Before that, they lived in a wood-frame home in West Palm Beach.

When they were looking for a home in Palm Beach home, Brooks put his oldest daughter, Copley, on the back of his bike and cycled around.

I came upon Dr. Adil Sokmensuers Monterrey-style home. I loved it its all cypress, but at the time, it had eight coats of paint on it. That was a drawback, Brooks says, noting that the flaking paint job wasnt very attractive.

My daughter said, Are we going to live in this chip house?

His wife picks up the story: And the name stuck. We actually use Chip House as a logo.

Built in the late 1920s by architect Bruce Kitchell, their house was a stop on home tour sponsored by the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach a few years ago, Sally says, and they told us that Kitchell designed other houses on the island and had (earned) great respect.

As it turned out, both Copley, who is married with a family of her own now, and her younger sister, Chessy, today at college, both loved growing up in the Chip House and they still adore it, which endears the house to us even more, Sally says.

But its time to move, Im ready for change, she says.

So their four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom house with 5,236 square feet of living space, inside and out is for sale. Agent Chris Deitz of The Fite Group has it listed for $6.725 million.

Over the years, the Riccas have carried out a lot of renovations, and theyve expanded the house, adding a sunroom downstairs and a master bedroom upstairs.

As older homes tend to do, this one required a certain amount of concentrated attention, Brooks says.

On the outside, for example, its all three-quarter-inch cypress shingles. They only make one-half inch now, so for some replacements, we had to get two and press them together, he explains.

A dozen years ago, we had the house scraped and painted. My goal was always to have the entire house stripped, to take it back to its natural cypress. It literally had to be done by hand and took three months to do, but it was worth it.

Inside, the floors throughout are oak and Dade County Pine, but cypress can be found just about everywhere else.

East of the foyer and stair hall are the living room and sunroom. The living room walls and ceiling are covered in cypress, as is the mantelpiece. For the sunroom, the Riccas had the living room ceiling copied.

Where it was needed, they replaced missing paneling and moldings with custom cypress woodwork and paneling from Blumer & Stanton. The cypress frames of all the original double-hung windows were stripped and the glass was reglazed, then the windows were reassembled and put back in place.

Straight off the stair hall are a wet bar and the library, which has a cypress-beamed ceiling as well as built-in bookcases. The kitchen, dining room and two-car garage are to the west.

The dining room is completely paneled in cypress thanks to the Riccas. Previous owners had covered up the cypress tray ceiling in plaster, which the Riccas painstakingly removed.

In the kitchen, floors are covered in Dade County Pine unearthed under three other floors during the renovation, Sally says. The cabinets are cypress, the appliances are stainless steel, the countertops are black granite and the backsplash is glass tile. At a peninsula is pull-up seating.

Upstairs, the master suite takes up the east side of the house, with their master bedroom addition opening to a large sundeck that overlooks the back yard. When they built the new master bedroom, they reconfigured the original to become closets, a dressing room and a marble-appointed bathroom. French doors from the dressing room open to the front balcony.

A study is off the stairway to the north, and to the west are two guest bedroom suites, with one paneled in you guessed it cypress.

The bedroom in the northwest part of the house was once two bedrooms.

We gutted (them), raised the roof and made it one big bedroom, Brooks says.

Other highlights: A second staircase rises from the kitchen. And from a guest bedroom, another staircase leads one to a widows walk on the roof, where a seating area offers views of the Intracoastal Waterway and neighborhood rooftops.

Thats one of the charms of this house, Sally says. I served Brooks a Valentines dinner up there one year, and he complains that I only did that once.

Outside are a pool, patio, covered loggias and porches.

Weve had great parties and big crowds on the patio around the pool,

Sally says. Its a great house for entertaining.

Brooks also likes the outdoor spaces. There are two big fans on the loggia, and we have a big TV out there, where we love to sit and watch football games and movies, he says.

Awnings over the sundeck and off the kitchen door shelter the spaces below. The awnings frames were recently repainted and the fabric replaced.

And no only do they like their wood house, but the Riccas are smitten with Dunbar Road on the near North End.

We believe its one of the best streets in Palm Beach because of its location and amenities, Brooks says. We have great access to the Lake Trail, the ocean, and town. And theres no traffic.

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'It was worth it' couple says of renovation of wood house in Palm Beach - Palm Beach Daily News