Cosmetic Surgery

A tired, old Oak Park home gets a face lift – and an interior transplant

By Liz Jaros

Home Book Magazine Contributor

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Years before orchestrating the home’s renaissance, Kellie Scott and her family set up chairs in front of 201 N. Linden Ave. In Oak Park to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July. Prominently positioned on a massive corner lot across form the O.P.R.F.H.S. playing fields, the gray stucco two-flat was something of an eyesore, Scott recalls, but she couldn’t help pondering its potential.

“I thought, ‘Someone could really do something with that house,’” she says. It was ripe for a makeover. But it wasn’t until 2006, after she’d established her own custom build firm, K. Scott Design, and the home’s real estate listing popped up on her radar, that Scott realized she just might be that someone.

Doing her homework before signing on the line, Scott says she found out the home had been built in 1885 as a single-family residence but was converted to a two-flat in 1917 by architect Charles E. White Jr. (of Cheney Manion and Oak Park Post Office fame). Working with Oak Park’s Historic Preservation Commission and Frank Lipo of the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, Scott says she needed to address a couple of potential sticking points before moving forward with her plans.

“White had taken off the wrap around porch when he did his renovations,” Scott says. And somewhere in time, the home’s cedar siding had been walled over with stucco. Because it was her intention to stay “as true as possible” to the home’s original Victorian character when plotting its exterior renovations, Scott knew these were things she’d need to prove.

Ultimately, an old fireman’s map would confirm the original porch placement (and enable her to build a new one, which was a priority) and a trip to see Oak Park Urban Planner Doug Kaare with a chunk of torn off siding would enable her to finish the house in cedar. And with these nods of approval, and the creative juices of local architect Garret Eakin already flowing into the project, Scott was in business just a few months later.

Beginning in Fall 2006 with a major demolition that left only the four exterior walls and one interior wall in place, and working within the home’s original foot print as required, Scott’s goal was to hit Victorian notes in a bright, contemporary floor plan, she says. And after fourteen months of high stress, including a series of dances with the H.P.C. and a tedious, hand-shoveling basement renovation effort, Scott believes she’s pulled it off.

“I love it when people walk through and say, ‘Oh this has to be original,’ about one of the home’s architectural features,” Scott admits. Cherry inlaid white oak floors, heavy crown molding, coffered ceilings, wainscoted walls and a show-stopping grand staircase (in a 23-foot foyer) are what you’d expect when you walk into a home like this.

Of course, when guests find out with the flip of a switch that the chandelier can be lowered into the foyer for easy cleaning, that the kitchen has been zoned for entertaining and appointed with all the modern bells and whistles, that there’s another kitchen in the basement and another on the third floor (each with its own dishwasher of course) and that the entire house is wired for plasma, high speed and high def, it becomes clear there’s nothing 1885 about this house at all.

In the basement, a slate fireplace with fiberglass flames and a projection screen theater room make the point even louder. And the third floor master suite – which includes walk-in his and hers dressing closets, a southeast exposed sitting room and a luxuriously appointed master bath complete with electric fireplace and aromatherapy air tub – tops off the transformation in true 21st century style.

But it’s what outside the home that Scott’s most proud of, she says.

A 23-by-19 foot covered lanai (featuring an outdoor kitchen/bar, slate floors, a chandelier, zoned speakers and an adjacent putting green) is the stuff of dream homes. And an 800 square foot wrap-around porch (with custom-milled spindles and a corner gazebo) doubles the home’s living space in summer.

Admitting that the overhaul was an endurance test of sorts, Scott says she was able to maintain sanity by surrounding herself with great people. And in the end, “The house is brand new but looks like it belongs here,” she believes. “It looks like it was always here.”