After the wonderful black and white Victorian photos we

viewed this week I have to devote today's Before and

After Friday to Historic Home Renovations.

Mark and Lisa Hellman spent over a year restoring their upstate New
York treasure.  Their progress was documented at Country Living.

Their 'before' photo is almost painful:


But how amazing is their 'after'?!


Here are before and after photos of the staircase renovation:
       
Country Living

Great job, Mark and Lisa!


Not many homeowners are lucky enough to have a photograph
of their historic home in it's original condition.  The photo, below,
was taken in 1944 of a Colonial style home that was built in 1922. 

Here is a photo that the current owners took when they bought it in 2007:




And the photo they took in 2009 upon completion of the restoration:

Source


Windom Construction of Atlanta specializes in older home restorations.
Here are two examples of their work on a couple of Southern beauties:
Before                                                                   After



Before                                                                    After
  
Windom Construction

One of the most challenging aspects of a restoration is
keeping the integrity of an historic home while improving
its amenities to accommodate a 21st century family. 

Brackmann Construction of Belton, MO, enhanced the beauty of
this century-old home while improving the living conditions.

Homeowners have a difficult decision between restoring an older home
to its original condition and updating it for today's lifestyle.  If it's a choice
between tearing down the home and building a new one or updating it, I'll
choose updating it every time.



Acorn Custom Builders of Naperville, IL, specialize in renovating
historic homes.  Here are just a few projects from their portfolio:
Before                                                    After
     


Before                                                       After
     

Before                                                       After
     
Acorn Custom Builders



Normandy Remodeling of Hinsdale, IL, also specializes in older
home renovations.  They did an excellent job on this house, didn't they?

 Normandy Remodeling

Last year the folks at hgtv spent 6 months moving, rebuilding and
renovating an historic homestead for their vacation giveaway home. 

The original historic homestead:


was stripped down:


moved to a coastal location and elevated on piers:



added on to and covered with siding: 



The reveal:

HGTV Historic Home Renovation
  Gorgeous!  Click here to view 90 photos of the entire process.

I wish I had a photo of the original condition of today's last project.
Believe it or not, the house is actually over 100 years old.  

Before 
   
This, above, was restored back into



this:

but was recently converted into:


this, the latest 'renovation':

Home and Design

What I don't understand is why the owners didn't just build
a contemporary home from scratch instead of converting
an historic home into something so modern.  Maybe in 50 years
the new owners will convert it back to its former beauty - if
they can figure out what it was.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Have a great weekend and stay warm!