Last year we won the Webster Groves Award of Excellence for Historic Preservation for a project we did on Sherwood Drive in Webster Groves.  That award gives me the opportunity to talk about some of the things that we do for our projects that strives to maintain both consistency and accuracy throughout a house undergoing a remodeling project.

 
Too often you see a simple room addition trimmed out in conventional base and casing that is readily available at any big box store.  Not only does it not achieve any level of continuity, the perceived quality of the entire job suffers.
When it comes to millwork, even if there is not a generous millwork budget, we often seek cost effective alternatives that still strive to maintain a consistent look throughout the house.  As the remodeling industry continues to boom, more and more mills are providing builders with “common” trim profiles at a steadily declining cost to the consumer.  What this means is that with a little planning and a careful eye for detail, even a small budget project can achieve a near seamless integration with the rest of the home.

Millwork is only one area in which we can make long strides to bringing any project up to the level of a Historic Preservation.  As an example, I will use a project that we are currently working on to illustrate some of my points.
One hundred and five years ago, an elegant home was built in the farmhouse style in northeast Webster Groves.  One hundred and three years ago, the current owner’s family moved into the home.  Since then, the occupants have been of this one family, so the house has a great deal of history, specifically with this family, which is something that they wanted to preserve in their remodeling project.  Aside from having millwork custom milled to original specifications and replicating the door styles, we paid strong attention to maintaining the look of the house on the exterior.  We painstakingly replicated an old cellar door, upgrading it using modern materials, but greatly improving its weather resistance.  We reintroduced architectural elements already in use on the house in the new areas, thus adding to the visual impact of seamless continuity.  We rebuilt the front porch to original specifications and replicated those design elements on the rear deck and side porch.   The look of the original 4” lap siding was preserved by using new vinyl siding, an approach that does not require intensive maintenance to keep the paint looking sharp.  The subway style and basket weave tile work in the new bathroom replicated the look of other tile designs appropriate to and commonly found in other homes built in the neighborhood around the turn of the century.  The simple joinery on the new cabinets harkens back to the Arts and Crafts movement in residential architecture is also period appropriate.  The icing on this cake is a pocket door. This door divided the living room and dining room and served as a major partition element in the original floorplan.  However, back in the 50s, this large pocket door became jammed inside the wall, where it remained, nearly forgotten, until we carefully extricated it.  After refurbishing some of the hardware, and a few adjustments, these homeowners once again have use of a door that has not worked in nearly a lifetime.

    I am only touching on the finer points of the efforts that we at Consolidated Construction Group undertake in nearly every single project.  It does not matter to us if the project may never be nominated for an award or historic register, we just want to make our projects look and perform like they have been a part of the house from Day One.  So keep an eye on our website, and as soon as the project is completed, you can browse the before and after pictures to see for yourself the seamless integration of old and new.

Questions and Comments are Welcome!

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Consolidated Construction is committed to providing the best possible customer care for your remodeling project.  As we continue our eighteen year history of precision craftsmanship and attention to design, we will provide neighborhoods in Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Glendale, Brentwood, Ladue, Clayton, Des Peres, and surrounding areas with quality home remodeling that reflects the dreams of our customers.  Exacting attention is paid to preserving historical accuracy and architectural detail to enable a seamless integration of old and new, while using top of the line materials and Green Building alternatives.