The couple was keen on restoring the house rather than redoing or updating it. The original exterior lap siding was in poor condition, but the McConaugheys patched rather than replaced what was no longer usable, salvaging siding off the back of the house, then scraping, sanding, and repainting each restored surface. The only exterior wall that was changed was the rear one, with new siding, new windows, French doors, and a two-story porch. “We moved some of the old windows off the back of the house and used them on
the front and sides,” said Warner.
Floors throughout the house are original heart pine. Wood bores and termites long ago softened some of the planks, but as new tile flooring was earmarked for the baths and kitchen, reusable planks were pulled up carefully from these spaces and put down in other parts of the house, then sanded and coated with protective
polyurethane. During the course of restoring their home, which now has three bedrooms, Warner and Allison had two children—Zadie and Wilson. The couple’s lives changed a lot during the years of restoration, but their vision for the house never wavered. “In remodeling or restoring a place, you have to have an overall plan for whatever you want to do,” Warner declared. “Even if you’re doing a piecemeal job, stopping and starting as we did, whenever you pick up again, you don’t want to have to rework anything. The real secret is preplanning.”
The rear facade of the house was totally redone, with new windows and French doors behind a two-story porch that overlooks the new patio and landscaped yard.
The Wish List
• Patch old siding and windows, and move reusable windows from the renovated rear exterior to where
needed on the front and sides
• Install new roofing and build a new front porch supported by old columns bought from a neighbor
• Scrape, sand smooth, and paint all of the repaired exterior siding and trim
• Redo the rear exterior wall, adding new siding, windows, and French doors plus a new two-story porch
• Restore two fireplaces and repair the single brick chimney
• Patch and refinish the heart-pine floors, and put down new tile flooring in the baths and kitchen
• Use mostly salvaged materials to rebuild the front stairs, and create a new stairway access to the attic
• Convert the house’s fourth bedroom into a new master bath, closet, and dressing room, and also redo the upstairs hall bathroom.
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