A year ago, people driving by 1512 Duncan Avenue in Highland Park probably assumed they were looking at a tear-down. The 100-plus year old house at the top a small swell of land at the corner of the Duncan and South Holly Street looked like a good shove would topple it over. Much of the siding was missing and it was standing askew on stilts, a previous owner having abandoned an effort to fortify the foundation.
But a new owner and one ambitious renovation later, and the home is an example of how skillful work and attention to historic integrity can bring a home up to modern standards while preserving the character of the surrounding community.
Greg Prescott of New Blue Construction, a local remodeler that specializes in high end residential renovations, recalls the condition of the home before his crew went to work. “One of the ceilings had caved in, the kitchen floor had collapsed, and there was about two feet of water in the basement. It was in bad shape,” he says.
Following the year-long renovation, Prescott stands inside the front door and surveys the work New Blue did. A long, open space that cuts through the center of the ground floor leads to rooms on the left and a simple but elegant staircase on the right. Natural light pours down from large windows at the top of the stairs, bathing the entryway with soft illumination.
What a difference a year – and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears – makes.
“The homeowner wanted to add more living space upstairs,” Prescott says, his voice reverberating in the roomy interior. “There was a wall between where we’re standing and the stairs, so this used to be a small foyer. The staircase was walled off, too, so it was just a tight corridor leading up to the attic. It was creepy.”
A closer look reveals the high level of detail New Blue put into the restoration: the team restored the hardware for opening and closing the ventilation windows above the doors leading for each room, and the hinges on the doors sport artistic engravings, demonstrating the kind of attention that went into building homes a century ago.
In contrast to the dramatic transformation the foyer underwent, the first room to the left is merely back to its old self. A square space with double sliding glass doors to the right leading to the dining room, its wood floor was wavy and its ceiling caved in. Today, the floor is perfectly level to the naked eye and there are no signs above of the cave in; rather, the ceiling looks like it could have been part of the original construction.
“The floors were all over the place,” Prescott says. “We crawled under the house and lifted it up. We also put in a new foundation.”
Prescott’s shoes clump across the wood floor as he passes through the double doors into the dining room and points to a pair of sizable windows on the far side of the room. “We replaced all of the windows with energy efficient versions,” he says. “These are larger windows than most people are putting in these days. That helped to preserve the character of the home.”
Unlike the windows, the floor on which Prescott is standing is original, and it looks it. There are knots in the wood that were there when the boards were originally laid, and a few chinks from wear and tear are visible. Moreover, the floor hasn’t polished or otherwise treated to make it look like something it isn’t. “There are many things in houses like this that are worth saving even though they look old,” he says. “This is a beautiful old floor; it has a lot of character.”
If there was a space on the ground floor that required more work than the foyer, it was the kitchen. Some of the differences are obvious: New Blue replaced the collapsed flooring with hard pine that once served as beams for a building in Alabama, custom-made cabinets that now hang from the walls, and installed new appliances. But there are a few things casual observers won’t notice, including the facing on the windows and the doors, and the detail on the baseboards.
Some of the original trim work on these items was ruined, but New Blue didn’t want to toss what was left and start over, so they hired someone to mill new trim work and integrate it with the old. The result is seamless. “No one makes trim profiles like this anymore,” he says, looking at the intricate baseboard that lines the room. “But we wanted to preserve the character of the home.”
New Blue made the old new again in all of its work at 1512 Duncan Avenue. From the living spaces upstairs, to the remodeled restrooms, to the new addition on the back of the structure, New Blue repurposed an entire house.
Just as importantly, the company’s workers blended these architectural elements with modern green building techniques to make the home more livable. The basement is dry and sealed with spray foam, and rigid foam board on the outside of the house help to create a tighter envelope than the home has ever had. Moreover, the spanking new green siding on the outside will be giving passersby an entirely different impression of this one-time candidate for demolition.
Projects like 1512 Duncan Avenue are giving New Blue, a relatively new company, a growing reputation as quality craftsmen. “We love doing big renovations. Bringing this house back to the point where it’s a beautiful place to live has been very satisfying.”
The work was far from easy, but New Blue had a homeowner who was just as excited about their work as they were. Communication with him was one of the keys to the success of the project. “We encountered obstacles we couldn’t have seen until we got well into the project,” Prescott says. “But he was as cool as a cucumber the whole time and never got rattled as we worked through these issues. Keeping your client in the loop is important.”
While new construction is springing up across the city like mushrooms, many remodelers are breathing new life into older structures, and in the process preserving the character of Chattanooga and its neighborhoods. One house at a time, they have helped to turn a city many people once assumed was a tear-down into one of the most vibrant places in the South to live.