house& home | November 2009 | house and home on l ine . com30

A HOUSTON COUPLE DISCOVERS

A CLASSIC MID-CENTURY

RANCH-STYLE HOME VIRTUALLY

UNTOUCHED SINCE 1955, THEN

PONDERS HOW TO UPDATE IT

YET KEEP ITS CHARACTER

By LINDA BARTHPhotography by MIRO DVORSCAK

ABOVE: The original brick and brick and wood screen separates the living room from the entry.Fabric for the slipper chairs is from High Fashion Home. On the coffee table is the book onHurricane Ike, HIWI: Ike, co-authored by homeowner Dave Thompson.

OPPOSITE: Entry door, unchanged from 1955, except fora new coat of paint, Sherwin-Williams’ “Tanager.”

BELOW: The Thompson’s mid-century ranch-style home in Old Braeswood sits on property that was oncehorse acreage surrounding the estate of Glenn McCarthy, Houston oilman who built the Shamrock Hotel.

RENEWING OLDBRAESWOOD

“No one here everdies or divorces,”jokes Dave Thompsonabout the OldBraeswood neighbor-hood where he andhis wife Zoe weredesperately seekingto buy a house lastyear.

They’d been living in a housein Montrose they hadrestored (House & Home,July 06), but with the additionof a third child, daughterPhoebe, to their family, theyneeded more room. And theywanted to live in OldBraeswood so their childrencould attend RobertsElementary School nearby.

The problem was theycouldn’t find any houses forsale in Old Braeswood, asubdivision begun in the1920s as the South End’sanswer to River Oaks. Itsmost notable resident wasfamed oilman GlennMcCarthy who in the 1920sbuilt a mansion there on 18acres with acreage for hishorses. He built theShamrock Hotel nearby in1946; as his debts mountedin the 1950s, he sold off bitsof his horse pasture anddeveloped houses on theproperty. As a result, OldBraeswood has a fine collec-tion of 1950s ranch-stylehouses, along with a fewinternational-style moderns .

The Thompsons appre-ciate homes of that era, anda friend of theirs who lives inOld Braeswood suggestedDave take the initiative andstart knocking on doors in theneighborhood to ask home- »

owners if they’d be inter-ested in selling theirhomes.

“Every Saturdaymorning, I dressed in mymost conservativeclothes—khaki shorts,button-down-collarshirt—and I took theminivan,” Dave recalls. “Idid 12 or 13 homes.Everybody was reallysweet, which also con-firmed we really liked thisneighborhood.”

Someone in theneighborhood hinted a1955 ranch-style housemight be coming up forsale. An older physician,a widower, lived there,and his three adult chil-dren living in Austinwanted him to move to asmaller apartment. Oneson would be home visit-ing his father that week-end, the informant said.

The next Saturday,Dave knocked on theirdoor and said to the sonwhen he opened thedoor, “Hi, you might findthis odd, but my familyhas sold our house, wewant to send our kids toRoberts, and would yoube interested in sellingyour house?”

The 36-year-oldson, as Dave remem-bers it, walked out ontothe porch, practicallybreathless in disbelief. “Icannot believe you arehere on my porch sayingthis,” the son said. “Wewant my father to moveto a smaller place, and Iwas just sitting herewondering what on earth

New terrazzo tiles, Agglomerates Blanco Stone byLenova, transformed the den. Dave insisted onkeeping the original mono speakers for the soundsystem. The sofa, original to the house, was re-upholstered by J. Rodriguez Upholstery.

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we were going to dowith this house.”

Dave didn’t havehis business card butgave the son Zoe’sbusiness card. Zoe andthe son’s wife talked byphone. They discov-ered that the familywho had lived in thehouse over the past 30years had children inthe same gender andbirth order as theThompson’s three chil-dren: Gus, 7; Henry, 6;and Phoebe, 3. Theyset a date for viewingthe house six weekslater.

LIKE COMINGHOMEDave had told thehomeowners before theviewing they shouldn’tfeel the need to primpor decorate the house.“All I care about is thestructure,” he told them.“The fact that you didn’tdo anything to it? That’sgood.”

The day of thevisit, Dave and Zoebrought along their realtor and architectJoe Meppelink, a friendwho would be doing therenovation.

The daughter whohad grown up in thehouse invited theminside for the tour. “Wewent into the foyer,”says Zoe, “took a leftinto the bedroom wing,and the second Iwalked into that part ofthe house I got chills allover. I knew that was

The glory of the dining room is itsoriginal 1955 light fixture. All lightfixtures in the house are originaland were restored and brought upto UL Code by A & O Lamp.

house& home | November 2009 | house and home on l ine . com34

my house. I could just tell that a happy family had been raised there. Ithought our children would be happy there. It was like falling in love. Ijust knew this was my house. Everything else was kind of lagniappeat that point.”

Dave recalls turning a corner and seeing the family room with alarge bar and soda fountain at one end. “I cried when I saw that bar,”says Dave, perhaps with a bit of hyperbole. “It was Sinatra and Martinin Tahoe, 1955.”

The masculine wood-paneled den, with ledgestone fireplace andbuilt-in TV, opened onto a flagstone patio and large backyard, perfectfor daddy-o on the patio grill parties.

Built in 1955 on the horse pasture land developed by GlennMcCarthy, the house has a dash of Hollywood glamour that McCarthyloved to cultivate. With premium light fixtures, a built-in intercom sys-tem, built-in TV, a wet bar, custom kitchen cabinets, five color-coordi-nated bathrooms and a master bath with 10 shower heads, this wasno ‘50s tract house.

“It was fancy,” says Dave.

“It was a fossil from 1955,” says Meppelink. “They carpeted itonce, and that’s it.”

The house had all its original linoleum, wall-to-wall bedroom car-pets, custom drapes, light fixtures, windows, kitchen appliances,everything. A mixture of upscale 50s and early 60s styles that recall

I Love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, Ocean’s 11 and Mad Men, the housewas not high modern, but definitely incorporated modern details andlayout into its structure.

Dave and Zoe made an offer on the house after a quick walk-through by their contractor, John Galvin of Kerry Galvin Homes, andthe family accepted their first offer.

WHAT TO DO?Joe Meppelink of Framework Design Studio says his firm had threedesign goals in renovating the Thompson’s new house: “Retain thethings that were great, edit the things that were not great and replacethem with things that weren’t a kitschy imitation. All parties were partof this editing. It’s about finding the voice of this house.

The new terrazzo tile floor is smooth and perfect for dancing, Zoe and Dave have discovered. Their flagstone patio awaits guests for their Mad Men party.

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“Anytime we do a renovation, it’s peering back at history,”Meppelink says. “I think the original owners of this house might havebeen conflicted. It has an asynchronous style—modern lighting andlayout—but then some more historic stylism. Some of the trim, thevalances on the bar and speakers, the cabinet pulls in her closet wereless modern and more decorative.” Meppelink posits that one spousemay have been a modernist while the other may have leaned moretoward decorative interior details.

Meppelink’s wife, architect Marisa Janusz did all the planningand drawings for the renovation; Framework’s Sarah Hannah handledinterior finishes, working closely with Zoe on paint colors and fabrics.

“We made very few moves architecturally,” says Meppelink. In anarea off the den, a wall between a home office and children’s play-room was removed to provide more space for a breakfast room andplay space. The master bedroom needed more natural light, so a slid-ing glass door to the patio was added on one wall.

The kitchen needed to be opened up. “It had no natural light,”

says Hannah. One small window opened into the carport. The open-ing between the kitchen and dining room was widened, as was theopening to the breakfast room on the other end of the kitchen.

All sliding glass doors to the patio were replaced with Fleetwoodglass doors. “They move like butter,” says Meppelink,

The linoleum in the den had to go, he says. “We felt like this floorreally wanted to be terrazzo,” he says. Framework found a beautifulterrazzo tile in 2- by 2-foot squares, Agglomerates Blanco Stone byLenova, that cost half of what regular terrazzo would cost. Meppelinkwanted to set the tile on the den’s subfloor, but Galvin insisted thesubfloor wasn’t strong enough, and he ripped up the subfloor and setthe tiles on the original slab.

Framework recommended a high-tech sound system for the den,but Dave wanted to keep the ancient monoaural speaker mounted onthe den’s wall. He and Meppelink argued back and forth, but Davewon, and now he plays his Miles Davis and Stan Getz standards onhis I-pod, which feeds into the 1955 mono speaker on the wall.

Architect, builder and homeowners gather for a mini-reunion. “It’s a really fun house,” says designer Sarah Hannah. “Ending the project I was sorry to be donewith it.” Left to right: Zoe Thompson, builder John Galvin, Phoebe Thompson, Sarah Hannah, Dave Thompson, Joe Meppelink. In foreground: Gus, left, andHenry Thompson. The built-in 1955 TV, non-operable, is original to the house. New metal valances behind the bar are lasered in a Champagne bubble pattern.

house& home | November 2009 | house and home on l ine . com36

“It’s not even stereo,” Meppelink says, “but Dave was right, so right.It has a mellifluous sound.”

Debate over whether to remove the kitchen cabinets endedwhen Galvin insisted that the cabinets remain. The kitchen appli-ances were replaced, except for the vent hood. The stainless steelcountertops around the cooktop were left in place, though newcountertops were added elsewhere.

Much of the work involved scrubbing and cleaning surfaces.Dave and Meppelink marvel at Galvin’s cleaning specialist whoscrubbed all the aluminum trim on the house’s existing windows,the wood paneled walls in the den, and the bathroom floors andtiles. The surfaces look like new.

But most of all, Dave and Meppelink marvel at the work ofcontractor John Galvin. The entire remodeling job, a large projectwhich involved totally rewiring the house, redoing the floors andrepainting surfaces took only 10 weeks. “That’s unheard of,”Meppelink says. “I cannot stress that enough. This project could’vetaken eight months to a year to finish.”

Says Dave, “One day I came home from work at lunch, andwe had 37 people working in the house.”

“Intense” is the word the two use to describe Galvin’s workstyle. “If you like strong coffee, he’s espresso,” says Dave, in admiration.

At the end of the project, Dave recalls sitting with Galvin on thehearth in the den, looking at what they had done. “Galvin said,‘How could we have worked so hard, and it doesn’t look like we didanything?’”

Exactly, says Meppelink. “Good design shouldn’t draw atten-tion to itself.”

SETTLING INThe layout of the house has changed the way the Thompsons livetogether as a family in several ways. In their Montrose house, theydidn’t sit down to dinner every night. In Old Braeswood, they do.Opening the wall between the kitchen and the dining room hasmade it easy and inviting to serve dinner in the dining room. “Weeat together there every single night,” Zoe says. “We talk about ourday. Dinner has become more of a treasured ritual.”

The only TV in the main house is the non-working vintage1955 TV hidden behind cabinetry in the den. They definitely wantedto keep that TV for its historic charm. The only operable TV is in theguest suite by the carport. “The importance of the TV has dimin-ished even more,” Zoe says. “I think that’s a positive thing for us.”

The children can play freely in the large fenced backyard, andthey have many friends to play with. “Within 100 feet of our housethere are six other boys under the age of 10,” she says.

“The first week in the house we were sitting at dinner andDave said, “’I felt my shoulders have dropped for the first time in ayear and a half,’” Zoe says. “We’re home. We can finally relax. It’sreally become a bit of a refuge for all of us.”

Dave enjoys making sodas—real sodas that fizz—for the kidsat the fully restored soda fountain at the bar. In the evening, whenadult guests gather round the bar, he shakes a mean martini,daiquiri or Manhattan.

The kitchen previously opened to the dining room through a door. Framework Design recommended the opening be widened to join the kitchen to the dining roombetter. Cabinets are original to the kitchen, but were repainted Sherwin-Williams “Passive.” At right, the vent hood and stainless countertop surrounding the cooktopare original to the kitchen. At left, the rectangular steel panel beyond the sink hides paper towels; it’s part of the original kitchen’s fixtures.

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This month, Dave andZoe plan to celebrate theirbirthdays at home with aMad Men party, inspiredby the AMC-TV seriesabout the advertising busi-ness in the early ‘60s.Appropos, as Dave is inthe advertising/marketingbusiness; Zoe is a busi-ness consultant.

The Mad Men themeis also a good fit becausetheir house could be astage set for the TVseries, acclaimed for itsmid-century interiors andperiod clothing. “All thewomen are looking forpointy bras,” Dave reports,of his party preparations.

The DrapersThompsons are ready toentertain.

RREESSOOUURRCCEESS

Joe MeppelinkMarisa JanuszSarah HannahFramework Design Studio713.426.3640

John GalvinKerry Galvin Homes Inc713.683.9642

Apex Electrical Services281.808.3725

J. Rodriguez Upholstery713.226.8991

New Look Wood Floors 713.283.2996

Geovani Guadado, Tile281.8850.0608

Vicente & Edgar Guillen,Painters713.269.0908

Dave is proud of the den’s restored soda fountain. “My dad had to teachme how to use it,” he says. His father was a soda jerk in his youth. Thelever must be pulled down for carbonated water; it’s pushed back for gas to make the soda foam.

Dave pours Zoe his famous pink daiquiri, not too sweet with just a bit of fizz.

The bathroom was remodeled, though the man’s dressing room, seenthrough door, was left intact with its original cabinet door and drawer pulls.Bathroom countertops are Equator marble from Walker Zanger.