The House Moves Forward
Sep 9th, 2007 by Marilyn
By the time we entered the project, our builders had gone through the many hoops of the Lawrence Historical Resources Commission – lucky us! The problem of finding space in a historic district had already been solved by the authorized removal of a rather unattractive rental property, giving us an amazing opportunity to build.
The plan is from a Lawrence-based architect who has designed, among other things, some pretty cool fire stations. In the 1920′s-style, English Tudor inspired “cottage”design, we saw a mix of light, open spaces and smaller, cozy rooms – and that we could to alter or finish everything as we saw fit. Our perfect new old house.
At about 2800 square feet, it will include 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms – the guests want privacy, don’t they? – an eat-in sun room, a detached (historic decree) 1 & 1/2 car garage, a nicely sized kitchen, a woodburning fireplace – and many, many windows.
Its greatest attraction, by far, was its proximity to downtown Lawrence, One block from the pool, two from the library, three from the post office, and a few minutes’ walk to Prima Tazza, Liberty Hall, and Free State Brewery. That sealed it for Greg.
We made the deal and moved forward. Our builder, Dan, is our guide and number-one speed dial. He’s also a dedicated fellow eBay’er, a gifted carpenter and sharer of crazy visions. Whether cheerfully working with reclaimed timbers or installing the latest auction find, he’s the first to tell us there are no house problems – “only clever solutions.”
In the past three months, we’ve watched the framing get finished; seen three floors of heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical get installed; obsessed over appliance choices, stone choices, stain choices, wood choices. In between, we managed to prepare and sell our own house. Now, in September, we’re a few weeks off schedule and looking at a November move-in date. But it sure is beautiful, with its new-old coat of stucco, stained wood trim and new sheetrock.
Here’s how it got that way:
The all-important permit – and inspection.
The beautiful chimney goes up, brick by brick
That is one BIG electrical panel
Our vintage front door arrives – from a 1920′s house in Pennsylvania.
The new range, sitting and waiting. Thank goodness for the forklift on-site.
We went to northern Minnesota for a week at the end of August. Dan said we’d be amazed at the changes when we returned, and we were. While we were away, the house had been completely covered in stucco (eventually to be painted off-white), the trim had been primed dark brown, and a door jamb custom-built to perfectly hang the old door.
Yes, it looks done, but there’s still the stone, the interior walls, the appliances, the bathrooms…apologies to all of our would-be houseguests in October & November (you know who you are). After that, the guest room is yours!
