<\/p>\n
Alison and Fernan Rodriguez thought they were ready to build a house from the ground up.<\/p>\n
The couple was a longtime resident of the Kessler Park neighborhood of Dallas, and wanted to stay in the area. They moved once already, when they started having kids \u2014 Luca, now 7, and Coco, 4 \u2014 but soon they needed more space. They also longed for a home that better reflected their taste.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe wanted to build a new building, and we wanted a transitional Spanish-style house,\u201d said Ms. Rodriguez, 38, who helps run the orthodontic clinic her husband founded.<\/p>\n
The couple put their house on the market in 2018, immediately found a buyer and began planning to build a new home. But then they noticed a listing for an old house: a former monastery owned by the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It wasn’t the Spanish style home they were dreaming of, and it was far from perfect. The 1926 red brick building is listed “as is” for $599,000. Except for the altar area, it looked like it hadn’t changed since the 1960s, and needed new systems, including plumbing, wiring, and windows. It was also infested with fleas.<\/p>\n
However, they liked the overall look of the place. \u201cWe saw the potential of this neglected home,\u201d said Dr. Rodriguez, 45.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“Her bones are very beautiful,” said Ms. Rodriguez. “We really wanted to take her back to her glory days.”<\/p>\n
They weren’t the only ones who felt this way. The property inspired a bidding war, and the couple eventually paid $650,000 when they closed in October. Then they found a rent to live two blocks away and turned to Maestri Studio, an architecture and interior design firm, to oversee the building’s transformation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe wanted to respect the bones as much as we could, but give them our personality,\u201d Ms. Rodriguez said. Dr. Rodriguez added that the plan was to faithfully restore the exterior while adding some bold elements to the interior to give the home a modern sense of style.<\/p>\n
When their architect, Eddie Maestre, toured the house, “One of the things that jumped out at me was that it had beautiful plaster casts and interesting details about the time period,” he said. “We really wanted to build on these things.”<\/p>\n
At first, he hoped to preserve it. But many walls had to be opened, and the plaster had to be demolished. “We had these beautiful details all over the house that just disappeared,” he said. “So we recreated it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
At the same time, Mr. Maestre wanted to inject some new energy into the project, so he worked with Katie Poulsen, an interior designer in his studio, to remix the mouldings, now curvy and curvy in unexpected ways, added arched doorways and molded oversized teeth over built-in cupboards. For more architectural details.<\/p>\n
He also made strategic changes to the floor plan to better serve a busy 21st century family, extending the kitchen to a former balcony to support its role as the heart of the home, and creating better access to the breakfast room. The space above the entrance hall has been expanded to accommodate a full bathroom and spacious wardrobe for the master suite. Turn the attic into a playroom and design a separate garage.<\/p>\n
Finally, Mr. Maestri and Mrs. Paulsen borrowed Art Deco details, in a nod to the age of the building, introducing repeating geometric shapes and plenty of brass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The kitchen is the family’s favorite room. “We wanted to be bold,” Dr. Rodriguez said. The designers introduced black and white concrete floor tiles with an asymmetric pattern, black and copper cabinetry, and doors that swing back to reveal a coral-colored pantry. The connected breakfast room has walls lined with green cloth, evoking the free hues of malachite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But the new powder room, which Mr. Maestri puts under the stairs, may be the boldest of all the spaces, with poster-like Christian Lacroix wallpaper of playing cards, emerald- and star-crossed floor tiles and a large copper sink above the black marble vanity.<\/p>\n
“We’ve pretty much got a new building,” said Dr. Rodriguez, in the structure of a century-old home, by the time they finished rebuilding the 3,950-square-foot home. “Everything except the exterior walls is new.”<\/p>\n
Including landscaping and pool, the project cost about $1.2 million, and the family moved into their new home in July 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love it,\u201d Dr. Rodriguez said, even though the project is now complete, they miss the thrill of the renovation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“We enjoyed the process,” he said. “It wasn’t one of those things, like, ‘Oh, what a nightmare. “<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
That’s why the couple now works with Maestri Studio on a new orthodontic practice office, and why not rule out renovating again, should they find another dusty treasure.<\/p>\n
“We are ready for another project,” Dr. Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: Tweet embed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n