FINCH HOUSE
Project:
To flip a well-known, mid-century house inside the city limits of Cape Girardeau, MO. I assisted the client with drawing the line between keeping certain elements of this time-capsule and spending the money to update.
Inspiration:
Mr. Finch, a well-known lawyer at the time, built this home for his family in the late forties. I could tell Mr. Finch was ahead of his time by all of the gizmos and gadgets that were still in working order, for example low voltage wiring throughout the entire house, an inset mixer that would pop-out from the countertop of the island with the push of a button, and a ten channel system that would allow him to turn on and off lights throughout the house from his bedroom wall. My client wanted to preserve everything we could, to keep the integrity of the house, but to modernize the things that would bring the residence up to today’s standards like other neighboring plots.
The Client:
Scott Rhodes. Well known entrepreneur, developer and owner of the Rhodes Group, Boulder Construction and Plaza Tire- to name a few.
What We Love:
• The Frank Lloyd Wright ambiance of the house. Cut limestone on the exterior of the house (from that era), the U-shaped floorplan, a huge kitchen, with large windows, exterior sliding doors, a master suite, Jack-n-Jill bedrooms and a centered fireplace between two rooms… I could go on and on. This house has a great layout and was well built. Ironically I designed a house similar to this in collage and I think it’s perfect.
• The master suite. When we first started this project the master suite was made up of pink tile and maroon sinks like the other bathrooms, a fiberglass shower insert, a hallway to a “Mad Men” home office, two small closets and bad lighting. We removed the small bedroom closet and the central bathroom to lay it out with a more modern concept. We added a walk-in closet, a separate water-closet, two separate vanities, a walk –in custom shower, a fireplace you can view from the soaking tub, more functional and accent lighting, and had the hardwood floors refinished with a espresso finish.
• The sliding full lite glass doors walking out to the patio. These accordion doors stack into each other opening up the exterior wall to the outdoor elements. It’s like something you would see in California.
What We Did:
I met with the client to discuss what we would keep and what we needed to spend time and money on that would help the house to sell. The majority of the interior lighting fixtures and wiring and all of the exterior lighting fixtures were replaced; new plumbing fixtures were selected, ordered and installed; interior and exterior paint colors and locations were communicated through a paint schedule given to the painters; existing kitchen cabinetry was cleaned up and updated with modernized fabrications, while new cabinetry layouts were drawn to scale, fabricated and installed by the same local company for the powder bath, laundry and master bath; countertops were selected, fabricated and installed; a new master suite layout and plans for a hallway closet transformed into a walk-in main-level laundry were designed to scale with specific finishes and fixtures being recommended, the plan was approved by the client and the work commenced . I stayed in contact with the client, the project manager, the subs and the companies we were ordering fixtures from. I wanted to make sure there was progress, that the plan was being implemented and making sure questions were answered, so if a problem arose I’d be on my toes with a solution.
