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Painstaking work restores home's old-time character□ HOMEFRONTContinu#d from indining room by installing a parquet floor. KBecause the home had no original bathrooms, the Woods converted the upstairs kitchen into 2‘* bathrooms, one of which includes a Whirlpool. A laundry room also is on the second floor.The plumbing was out of the dark ages. Wood recalled.The Woods moved into the home seven months after the purchase date, but much work remained, including patching plaster, painting and decoratingThey also turned their attention to the home’s exterior, which soaked up 55 gallons of primer. The paint job features five different colors, reflecting the exteriors of San Francisco row houses about the time the home in Janesville was built.“I wanted to have some fun ” Bill saidThe upper dormers were painted darker than the bottom dormers to “lower the house ” Bill said.Jackie had Bill’s initials— W.S.W.—painted on the decorative scrollwork on the home’s front.Inside. Jackie wasn’t afraid to use bold, Victorian wallpaperwith geometric shapes and stripes The important denominator in matching papers is keeping colors similar, she discoveredShe bordered ceilings and lighting fixtures with designs she cut from her wallpaper, and often decorates with nature—shells, bird’s nest and peacock feathers—in the Victorian style.The cheery kitchen is Jackie’s favorite room.She first scraped the linoleum and its residue of black goo from the floor, which was then given a shield of polyurethane.The wainscoting was painted green and topped with a wallpaper of bright red geraniums on a white background.Red accents sound off throughout the kitchen in such accessories as watermelon place mats and modern watercolors.The light green that borders the door and cabinet paneling is actually the color of the kitchen when the Woods moved in,A walk through area between the dining room and kitchen is lined with cabinets fronted by old, wavy glass and bins for flour and sugar.Decorating touches from the past include a calling card server by the front door, a marble-topped dresser, Victorian furniture in the parlor. Bill's father s West Point uniform hanging on a hall tree and a portrait of Bill’s mother above a couch.Old tablecloths and pieces of lace double as curtains.The Woods are still working upstairs, which can be reached from both the back and front staircaseThe back stairway, with its more primitive woodwork, was built for the maid, said Jackie, who stenciled the staircase.Walls on the second floor were covered with layers of paint over wallpaper that had to be scraped. Woodwork in one bedroom needed refinishing.The couple admit there are some obvious drawbacks to refurbishing and maintaining an old home, such as heating rooms with 10-foot high ceilings, no downstairs bathroom and old-time radiators, which the couple like for their charm.“I wanted to preserve the house,” Bill said. “I could have gutted it and turned it into something modern. But I wasn’t interested in that.”The couple are planning a party to celebrate the home’s 100th birthday.Rest assured, they won’t be taking a sledgehammer to any more walls.
Newspaper Details
Janesville Sunday Gazette
Janesville, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Sep 30, 1989
Page 41
Full Page
Clipped by
Ruth A.
NA, NA 06 Jun 2025
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