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Job #88003 · Taylors Island, MarylandBedroom, full bath, and a 355-square-foot roof deck overlooking the Chesapeake — engineered for 115-mph coastal winds, with stainless hardware throughout.
Miguel and Carmen wanted a true primary suite — bedroom, full bath, and an outdoor space to take in the view. The addition had to sit lightly on the existing structure, stand up to coastal weather, and feel like it had always been part of the house.
The existing footprint already had an existing terrace with a crawl space along its western flank. Rather than build out the side yard, we built upward — turning the terrace and crawl-space envelope into structural support for a bedroom addition that captures the long view across the marsh and the Chesapeake beyond.
The addition is laid out as a single bedroom suite with an en-suite bath, a walking closet, and a stair connecting to the new roof deck. A bay window on the north face captures the Chesapeake view from bed.
The plan deliberately keeps the existing house's circulation untouched. The master suite connects directly to the existing living and dining area beside the kitchen, keeping the guest bedrooms close but independent.
A picture window on the north wall and a bay window seat at the northeast corner give the bed two ways to look at the water. The window seat doubles as deep storage; the bay framing pulls in natural light. The interior palette stays quiet — white walls, light oak floor — so the view does the work.
The addition is framed with a triple-LVL primary beam running east-west and 2×10 pressure-treated joists spanning north-south. The whole assembly lands on three new sonotube piers alongside the existing masonry — minimum disturbance to the existing structure, all loads transferred to fresh footings sized for coastal soil bearing.
Above, the 355-square-foot roof deck sits on TPO over rigid polyiso over DensDeck — pitched a quarter-inch to the foot for drainage. The cellular PVC railing system is engineered for the Chesapeake's 115-mph wind exposure (IRC 2021, Exposure C). Every fastener, every piece of hardware: 316 stainless, because the salt air doesn't forgive shortcuts.
Maincare Services leads the full package: measured survey, schematic design, construction drawings, permit coordination with Dorchester County, and the construction schedule and budget. The project is delivered as an owner-builder build under Maryland's §3-103 exemption, with Maincare managing design, drawings, and on-site coordination across a nineteen-week construction calendar.
The schedule splits into five phases — site prep and pier work · framing and weather-tight · roofing and railing · interior fit-out · final inspection — with interior and exterior tracks running in parallel after the weather-tight milestone, so finish carpentry and roof-deck work happen at the same time rather than sequentially.
This page becomes the home of the Monroy build journal once construction starts. We'll post a photo and a short write-up at each milestone — pier inspection, framing, weather-tight, roofing complete, finishes, final walkthrough — through to project handoff in September.
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