A more traditional method will be used to elevate Jed and Christine Laird's 1890s home, in Bay Head, New Jersey, which is located on a narrow barrier peninsula between the Atlantic and Barnegat Bay. The clay subsoil beneath the house is stable enough for concrete-block piles anchored to below-grade concrete footings. But, to complicate matters, work on the house itself—as with many period homes—has run into unforeseen challenges. "The original wood framing had been exposed to flooding before and altered several times, and all of it was inadequate," says Jack A. Purvis, the project's architect. "So we ended up having to jack the house from the second story and entirely rebuild the first story underneath."