After living inSan Antonio for 15 years, Paula Cox began planning a move to Austin in 2018, to be closer to some of her grandchildren.

“I wanted to have a strong connection with the grandkids as they grow up,” said Ms. Cox, 72, an artist.

That year, she rented a house in Austin’s Tarrytown neighborhood, where her son and two grandchildren lived. “It was hard for me to leave San Antonio because I was very ingrained in the art community there,” she said. “So I rented to give myself a year to consider ‘Are you really going to do this?’”

By the time her lease was almost up, she was ready to buy. As she began looking for a house, she said, “what I was most concerned about was price,” adding that Tarrytown is an expensive neighborhood. “I wanted to be under a million.”

The 2,100-square-foot 1940s house that she eventually bought reflected some compromises she made: It was located on a busy corner; the primary suite was in the back of the garage, down a few steps from the rest of the house; and the dining room looked as if it occupied a former screened porch, and its sloped ceiling was so low it made people instinctively crouch.

But those problems resulted in an attractive asking price, and Ms. Cox was confident a renovation could fix them. She closed on the house for $995,000 in May 2019, moved in, and began working with a designer on renovation plans.

When the Covid pandemic arrived in 2020, Ms. Cox paused the project. “I didn’t know what was happening,” she said, “but I knew that I did not want to be in a major project with a torn-up house.”

The break turned out to be fortuitous, giving her an opportunity to reconsider what she wanted to do with the house. In 2019, she had taken an architectural tour around Austin and visited an 1890s limestone house that looked traditional from the street but had a modernist cube of an addition at the back.

“It was so good,” she said. “I wondered if we could do something like that with my kitchen and dining area. But that was going to take creativity and architects willing to see if it would work.”

In 2021, based on a recommendation from a friend, she called the architecture firm Clayton Korte to ask for help. Paul Clayton, a founding principal of the firm, was thrilled.

“I lived just down the street, and my wife and I would walk by the house all the time,” and admire it, Mr. Clayton said. “It was really serendipitous when Paula called.”

Over the following months, Clayton Korte and Ms. Cox developed plans for a sensitive renovation that they hoped would maintain the character of the building, fix the problematic elements and add colorful, contemporary touches that reflected Ms. Cox’s personality.

“Paula is an artist, and the house became a manifestation of who she is,” Mr. Clayton said, noting that the design team knew that color, patterns and sculptural elements would be prominent interior design features from the beginning.

To fix the dining area and kitchen, the architects raised the roof and rebuilt the walls with green-painted steel-framed windows. During the day, the windows offer a view to the street, but they can be covered with floor-to-ceiling curtains for privacy at night.

Ms. Cox had previously purchased a pink Big Chill fridge and insisted that the rest of the kitchen interior feature rosy colors and curves. Clayton Korte responded with a rose quartz island and counters, a curving tiled range hood and floors featuring wavy lines of orange-y pink and cream terra-cotta tile.

On the other side of the house, the architects built an addition of about 200 square feet with similar green window walls to create a library that also gives the house a sense of balance. To fix the primary suite, they raised the floor and roof to bring the space up to the same level as the rest of the house. Clayton Korte added a long concealed skylight along one bedroom wall, washing the minty green paint with natural light. A terrazzo floor runs into the primary bathroom, where forest green zellige tile wraps the walls and a free-standing copper tub sits by a window.

Working with the landscape architecture firm Lattice Studio, they also designed a new garden around the house with brick and steel planters filled with native vegetation. A terraced backyard of steps, pea gravel and pavers leads to a new carport camouflaged by a breeze-block wall painted a terra-cotta color.

Drake Build began construction in March 2023, with the project being completed the following summer at a cost of about $1.3 million.

Being patient with the renovation paid off in the end, Ms. Cox said.

“I love the rooms that have been created, the light, the colors and all the choices we made,” she said. “It has exceeded all my expectations.”