Home Tour highlights homeowners who reinvested after tornado, and more: 63 homes celebrate city living and home improvement inspiration
The May 22 2011 tornado left lasting devastation, but hope and opportunity as well…that’s the message hundreds of visitors to the Minneapolis & Saint Paul Home Tour will receive at two of the three homes featured on the April 28-29 tour in Webber-Camden and Folwell.
Architect and athletic trainer Alexander Zachary’s home at 3911 Colfax Ave. N. was on the Minneapolis & Saint Paul Home Tour in 2006 with plain grey asbestos siding. The tornado ripped off the roof in the back and let the rain pour in and saturate the house. Although the front of the house sustained little damage, the back was so severely damaged that the home was not livable.
Now, “I’ve had packages delivered and the carrier has to look twice, they don’t think they have the right address,” Zachary said. He and partner Jason Wermager were not only able to re-side with warm colors, but also to realize their dream kitchen.
The tornado took off the chimney, and mold from water damage rotted the existing heating system. A new high-efficiency furnace vented out the side of the house doesn’t need a chimney, so they and contractors from Purpose Driven Renovation were able to reappropriate that space. Combined with an unneeded hallway they doubled counter space in the kitchen. Upstairs, they reconfigured the master bedroom area on the second floor for the feeling of a suite with more usable space.
Zachary said he’s also grateful the living and dining rooms were able to be restored to where visitors think nothing changed.
Just a few blocks south and west, a small one-story home at 3647 Emerson lost its roof. The owner donated what remained to Urban Homeworks, a non-profit housing organization which provides jobs and skills training. They are renovating it and put on an entire second story, using Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds, and will be selling it through Project Reclaim, a contract-for-deed program that gives time to establish or clean up credit.
David Zelaya’s home at 3927 Colfax sustained roof damage and a back door window poked out by flying branches. But he’s on the Tour mostly to share how wonderful it is to be able to find a nicely remodeled home, affordable especially with buyer incentive programs that are still being offered. And, he said it’s an excuse to finish buying furniture.
At the other end of the tornado path, repairs are underway on Blake Zochert’s Washburn Avenue home near Plymouth Avenue. Meanwhile, he was able to restore a small home he had purchased to develop, and is living there now. That home is on tour at 1631 Upton Ave. N.
Other homes in North Minneapolis on tour include 2901 Logan Ave. N., 1518 Morgan Ave. N., 535 Sheridan Ave. N. and the Heritage Park Senior Campus. A complete list of the 63 locations for the Minneapolis & Saint Paul Home Tour will be available online in the first week of April at www.MSPHomeTour.com and printed guides will be at local libraries in April.
Other homes, not on the home tour, that demonstrate making the best of the tornado:
Two doors down from 3647 Emerson, Ian Alexander’s tall two-story home took the brunt of the tornado’s fury on that block, several years of work and investment restoring the home blown away. The top story gone, what remained of the home was recently demolished. With insurance proceeds he was able to purchase a previously foreclosed home elsewhere in North Minneapolis that he is now gutting to remodel. “It’ll be a few years before I’m ready for the Home Tour,” he said.
Recently noted on WCCO’s “Good Question,” Camden residents Marie and Michael Porter didn’t have enough insurance “so we’re having to do most of the work ourselves.” They are tiling the kitchen backsplash in increments that make the numerals in “Pi.”
David and Alejandra Brown’s Folwell home, on the Home Tour last year, lost one of its stone chimneys and more. In rebuilding the damaged second story, their architect redesigned the roof line to give more headroom.
Three homes, two in Webber-Camden and one in Folwell will be on the Minneapolis & Saint Paul Home Tour April 28-29. For two of them, the focus is definitely the tornado tales. One is Alex Zachary, the other is an Urban Homeworks project at 3647 Emerson, where the former owner donated the house and they will be selling it, after rehab, on Project Reclaim. The third house suffered some damage but is mostly on the tour for traditional reasons, to support the neighbor down the street and help spread the word that this is a great place to live, particularly when incentives make it affordable.