Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Residential revival

The remodelers of a designer show house in Sarasota take a cottage that some would have razed and nurse it back to health.

By JUDY STARK
Published February 3, 2007

A former sunroom is now an artist's retreat with windows on three sides (designer: Joyce Hart). New heart pine floors match the original wood, which the owner-contractor saved wherever he could.
	[Times photo: James Borchuck]

Everybody says a house with good bones is worth saving. What do you do when most of the bones are broken?

"Every wall was termite-ridden," said Scott Bill, owner and remodeling contractor of the 1920s Sarasota cottage that is this year's designer show house for the Florida Gulf Coast chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.

The termites were just the start. No central heat and air. No insulation. Bad roof. Old wiring and plumbing. Choppy little rooms. Cold in winter, hot in summer. What had been a cozy family cottage for decades for the Sullivan family was a candidate for a teardown.

But a contractor with a heart for preservation bought the house, reset those broken bones, and has turned the old cottage into a neighborhood star.

Essentially, contractor Scott Bill replicated the house's original exterior appearance with modern materials and gutted the inside, saving what he could inside and out and transforming the house into spaces that work for families today. He bought the house in July for $830,000; it's for sale now for $2.2-million.

"We had to replace every exterior wall, rip out the lath and plaster on the inside, the cypress siding, the sheathing, down to the studs," he recalled of the job that started in September and finished just before the show house opened Jan. 21.

As you walk through the house, look for the "before" photos to compare and contrast. There are worthy lessons to be learned here for residents of the Tampa Bay area's older homes and the new homes that are in the mold of old homes:

- Take down walls. The onetime tiny kitchen and several small adjacent rooms - the office where the original owner, a physician, conducted his medical practice, a pantry, and a closet - have been opened up into one huge kitchen, informal dining area and family room.

- Add walls. In the original floor plan, the front door opened directly into the formal living room. Adding a partial wall between the two sets the living room off for a greater sense of intimacy and gives more presence to the L-shaped foyer.

- Build on. In the 1920s no one had ever heard of a master suite as we think of it today. So Bill added on a 1,000-square-foot wing with a huge master bedroom and bath, exercise room, and laundry.

"We wanted to keep the addition in the era of the original house," said Brigid Hewes, who designed the 11- by 17-foot master bath with a luxurious soaking tub, rain shower and twin vanities.

The contractor tore down a collapsing old garage and built a three-car garage with a high-ceilinged guest suite above: living room, bedroom, bath and balcony overlooking the pool. The one thing people have remarked is missing, a docent said: There's no "morning kitchen" here with coffeemaker, undercounter refrigerator and microwave.

- Use color boldly. This year's designers didn't hesitate. The living room is a deep copen blue. The dining room is rich pomegranate. The ceiling of the porch is soft lime green. Jewel tones in a silk bedspread pop against neutral walls in a bedroom. There's lots of crisp black and white.

- Save or replicate what you can . . . Floors were saved and refinished. Bill kept the window seats on the second floor, the roof trusses, the front door and an arched French door that leads to the side porch. The balusters are original but the stair's handrail is new. New moldings match the old. The house is sided in a composite product that replicates the original cypress siding.

- . . . but don't be afraid to make changes. A fireplace that once stood between the windows in the living room is gone. "I hated taking it out, but the floor was rotting," Bill said, and the fireplace disrupted the symmetry of paired windows that he wanted for the front of the house. While the house was down to the studs he added hurricane straps. All the windows are new impact glass. The house now has structured wiring for today's computers, security systems and sound.

In this blend of old and new, you may decide that the "dance pole" in the exercise room reminds you a little too much of today's adult-entertainment venues. (Watch the video and decide if this is exercise or excitement.)

But at the other end of the spectrum, don't miss the framed, hand-written planting chart hanging on the wall of the foyer. From 1947 through 1949, someone carefully recorded the planting and blooming dates of petunias, calendulas, tomatoes, larkspur and more in the garden. The chart was discovered during the home's renovation. That's the sort of gift from the past that only an older home can share with us today.

Judy Stark can be reached at (727) 893-8446 or stark@sptimes.com.

Fast Facts:

Visiting the show house

What: Designer show house sponsored by Florida Gulf Coast chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.

When: Through Feb. 18. House is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Where: 2829 S Osprey Ave., Sarasota. From Interstate 75, take Exit 207 and drive west on Bee Ridge Road. Cross U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail). Bee Ridge curves slightly to the right. Turn right on S Osprey Avenue and drive north nine blocks to Bougainvillea Avenue. House is on the right. Park on side streets (no parking on Osprey).

Information: (941) 926-7794 or www.designershowhousesarasota.com.

Tickets: $20 at the door (cash or check only). The Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and Manatee are the beneficiaries.

What else: Many familiar restaurants along Bee Ridge and U.S. 41. Very heavy seasonal traffic.

[Last modified February 2, 2007, 19:35:45]