• August 28, 2024

Evanston Mansion Renovation – Exterior and Foyer

Join us as we dive into the details of the gorgeous 128-year old Evanston mansion, which SSDB has the privilege of renovating. In this episode we’ll look at the exterior limestone and windows as well as the grand entry foyer, complete with fireplace and original trim.

Follow along!

• Episode 1 – Exterior and Foyer
• Episode 2 – Library and Family Room
• Episode 3 – Dining Room and Porch
• Episode 4 – Kitchen and Pantry
• Episode 5 – Stairwell and Landing
• Episode 6 – Primary Bedroom and Bathroom
• Episode 7 – Porch and Third Floor
• Episode 8 – Lower Level
• Episode 9 – Laundry and Guest Bath
• Episode 10 – Kitchen and Pantry After Demo
• Episode 11 – Primary Bath and Closet After Demo
• Episode 12 – Laundry and Guest Bath After Demo
• Episode 13 – Third Floor After Demo
• Episode 14 – Temporary Primary Bedroom

Transcript

Hello, hello. It’s Amy from Scott Simpson Design Build and I want to welcome you to one of the most beautiful mansions on one of the greatest streets in all of Evanston.

It’s a three-story mansion that was built more than 100 years ago. It isn’t very often that you have the opportunity to work on such an historic home. I thought it would be a great time for us to just take a look at the house in its current condition and talk a little bit about what the scope of what we plan to do to make some improvements.

These clients chose this home particularly because of all the legacy characteristics. Behind me we have enormous double-hung windows. Not only are they tall – I’m 5’6″ – this is a massive window – but they’re extremely wide. And the thing that is so cool about this house is that nearly all of the windows still work.

This is a limestone building – everything on it is limestone. The walls are 18 inches thick. And we have all of these great original details and columns and balustrades that, for the age of the house, are just in remarkably good condition.

Some of the things that we are hoping to make some improvements on in this very, very grand entry foyer is to increase the amount of light. So we have plans to add some recessed lighting, plaster mud and trims. We have some plans to change the chandelier. And we’re also going to add some paint to brighten it up. The thing we’re not going to do is touch any of this completely amazing trim. This trim and this crown are original to the house. It’s something that you don’t see every day and when we walked in the front door the first time it just made my heart sing.

So as we begin to demolish, deconstruct, design, we’ll be keeping you posted on our progress through future videos. If there’s anything in particular you have questions about or want to see us talk about – drop us a line.