Home on the Elizabeth tour showcases couple’s hard work
Take a classic 1922 house in one of Charlotte’s oldest neighborhoods, simmer for 84 years, season with a once-in-a-century hurricane, add liberal measures of neglect and trash, garnish with a prime location on a corner lot and voila! A tasty fixer-upper to whet the appetite of fearless DIY practitioners.
And visitors can see the transformation for themselves during the annual Elizabeth Home and Garden Tour Oct. 11-12.
In 2006, Erik and Michelle Dagenhart had “stalked” the 2,500-square-foot house at 2134 Greenway Ave. for a couple of years and had a vision for it. It had survived Hugo despite extensive damage, had good “bones,” and was in the leafy Elizabeth neighborhood the Dagenharts loved. By the time it finally came on the market in 2006 they couldn’t pass it up.
With Michelle acting as general contractor and their architect friend and neighbor Andrew (Woody) Woodruff serving as their design adviser, the Dagenharts started a complete renovation. A lengthy cleanup came first, followed by demolishing parts of the house affected by cats and smokers, shoddy work on previous maintenance projects and trees growing through the floor.
“When we bought it, it was straight out of ‘Amityville Horror’ or the season finale of ‘The Hoarders,’ ” Erik recalls.
The couple were committed to doing much of the work themselves. Erik, a principal in an Atlanta-based commercial lightning protection firm, explains, “I just hate the thought of giving somebody else money to do something I can do myself. It’s not just to save money, although times were tight while we were in the middle of remodeling. My dad was a big do-it-yourselfer, so I give him a lot of credit for this mindset, even though I’m mostly self-taught.”
The Dagenharts hired contractors for the framing and roofing, plumbing and HVAC system. The couple did the remaining 70 percent of the work to remodel and expand the house to its present 3,600 square feet.
Wraparound porch
It wasn’t all smooth sailing. There was a lot of trial and error. To learn how to wire a four-way switch, for example, Erik turned online to YouTube.
The family – which includes twins Sam and Livi, now 13 – moved into the 400-square-foot detached garage apartment for the last eight months of the construction phase. They moved into the house itself in 2008 while the finishing work continued. Erik, who manages his business from home, and Michelle, a director at Wells Fargo who was working only part-time then, had flexibility to juggle their jobs with their house projects.
The result is a gem.
Keeping the original footprint, the Dagenharts pushed back and up to build a two-story, 1,100-square-foot addition of living space, including a larger kitchen, more storage, three bedrooms, an attic playroom, a den and screened porch on the back of the house. On the exterior they added fibrous cement siding and painted it a custom-mixed color that’s a blend of blue, green and gray. This signature hue is echoed in various warm neutral tones throughout the interior.
They enlarged the front porch to wrap around the east corner of the house. In fact, Michelle says, the family eats supper there every day, weather permitting.
Repurposing, refinishing
The loving attention the Dagenharts paid to every aspect of their home is apparent. In the dining room, for example, Michelle stenciled a silver pattern over a charcoal gray paint to create a unique wallpaper effect. She laid the tiles in the bathrooms. Erik built all the bookcases and with his dad’s help, laid hardwood floors throughout the house, including a striking herringbone pattern in the kitchen. Together the couple installed hundreds of feet of crown molding.
And they repurposed, refinished and recycled whenever they could, including the original flooring. When a cedar tree on the lot had to come down, it was milled into planks that Erik used to line Michelle’s walk-in clothes closet. Joists from a former bedroom were transformed into the counter top in the butler’s pantry and the mantle on the newly built porch.
While the overall design stayed intact throughout construction, some elements presented themselves on the spot. One example: Once the joists were torn out of an upstairs bedroom, Erik liked the effect of a vaulted ceiling. “But I knew if I suggested it to Michelle, she’d hate it,” he recalls. So he brought in the perfect mediator, their friend Woody Woodruff. His architect’s eye concurred with Erik’s. Michelle now loves the vaulted ceiling in her large master bedroom.
“(Woody) was our go-to guy throughout this whole process,” Erik says. “Michelle’s got the vision. Her taste is better than mine. I’m just the guy with a hammer. Woody would help us figure out how to translate Michelle’s ideas into doable projects.”
Eco-friendly touches
Furnishings also come from a variety of sources. Michelle’s favorite place to shop, she says, is Habitat’s ReStore at 1133 N. Wendover Road, where she bought building materials, lighting fixtures and other decorative accessories. Antique stores, tag sales and salvage yards yielded many other items which she refinished. From Craig’s List came a handsome sideboard in the dining room. An antique hall rack and the piano are family heirlooms.
As if there weren’t enough projects vying for attention, the Dagenharts made a commitment to make their home as “green,” or eco-friendly, as possible. Rain diverted from the roof feeds an underground cistern that supplies the sprinkler system. The venting system, insulation, tankless water heater and other energy efficiencies led to the home winning the Bronze certification from the N.C. Healthy Built Homes program. The home also qualifies for the Energy Star program under guidelines established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In a gesture of neighborliness, the Dagenharts installed a water fountain on the Ridgeway Avenue corner of their property. The stone-encased feature blends in with the updated landscape seamlessly and invites pedestrians to stop for a drink – and perhaps even a chat.
More projects remain ahead, Erik points out. When will they be finished? “They’ll be finished enough by October 11, 2014” – the first day of the tour, he promises. “And then I can really get started on the basement.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 2:05 PM.