Thanks to fixer-upper, Queen Anne is regal once more
Heights bungalow’s restoration earns owner Withers a Good Brick Award
Outside, the little Queen Anne bungalow was a mess: Its roof was leaky, and its porch was sagging. Windows were rotted, and paint was peeling on all four sides.
Inside was worse. Funky red, yellow and other bright paint colors had been used here and there. Two wood-burning stoves were the only source of heat, and noisy window air conditioners tried to cool things off in summer.
Tall pine pocket doors were stuck inside walls, and well-worn wood floors showed years of use. Termites had done their share of damage, too.
But it was just what Genevieve Withers was looking for: a project in the Heights West Historic District she could restore and call her own.
For her efforts, she earned a 2018 Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston.
Withers, 57, is the home’s fourth owner since it was built in 1909 by Joseph and Minnie Blazek. Joseph Blazek lived in the home until he died in 1960; his widow stayed until her death in 1967. It changed hands a couple of times, and then Withers bought it in 2015, finishing a massive restoration in 2016 that returned its exterior to nearly its original look.
As small, older homes are torn down all over the city, and historical cottages and bungalows get massive additions, Withers’ house is a rare treat — a small home cherished for its size and charm.
The home is 1,466 square feet, a size only slightly enlarged when a back porch was enclosed to create a master bathroom. An outbuilding added in the 1950s was in terrible shape — its roof was caving in, and its slab was cracked — so it was demolished and replaced with new construction of 350 square feet. That building provides Withers with a third bedroom and bathroom and an office for her burgeoning home-restoration business.
“It wasn’t an issue that it was falling apart and that the roof needed to be rebuilt and the floor needed to be re-leveled and all this rotten termite damage. I figured I’d get a good architect, and he’ll help me, and sure enough if he didn’t,” Withers said of Ben Koush, her architect and contractor.
Throughout her adult life, Withers has bought rundown homes, spruced them up and sold them for more than she paid.
“I focused on the intrinsic beauty and turned them into things that people would say, ‘Wow, I want one of those,’ ” said Withers, a native of Australia who came to America as a little girl when her father, a research scientist, was hired to work at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., and later at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
For example, in the 1980s, she paid $2,500 for a small house then moved it to a tiny lot. She got a bank loan for $18,000, then remodeled it while living in it, she said. Another home she renovated earned double its value in five years.
This home she shares with her husband, Jim Souza, 58, is different, though, because Withers had a bigger budget and could do more to make it a showpiece.
A former teacher, Withers founded Pipe Wrap, a pipe-repair-kit business, in 2005 and sold it to Milliken Infrastructure Solutions in 2014. The income from the sale of that company allowed her to start investing in real estate, and her interest is still in buildings that need fixing up.
“Before, it was about buying homes we could afford, but this time I knew I had a bigger budget. Having been used to taking things people didn’t want and making them into better things, it didn’t intimidate me,” said Withers, who is also restoring an old farmhouse in Gonzales County and another home in Australia.
Koush has worked on a number of older homes, including his own 1950s-era East End home, which he restored and recently sold. That project earned him a 2017 Preservation Award from Houston Mod.
“There’s a palpable feeling I have when I see an old house, especially in Houston, where there’s such a small amount of historic buildings. I’m just drawn to them,” said Koush, a 2002 Rice University School of Architecture graduate. “It’s interesting taking them apart and putting them back together.”
The process involves figuring out what the house looked like originally, determining what can be saved, then deciding how to fix the rest in the most architecturally sympathetic way, Koush and Withers said.
Most of the home’s interior footprint stayed the same, but the kitchen was reconfigured to have a bigger back door as well as a side door, moving the range to the opposite side of the room and adding an island in the center.
When drywall was removed from living- and dining-room walls, they found circa 1900 wallpaper that had been applied directly onto original shiplap. Once all of that was removed, three coats of white paint took the room from dark and dreary to light and airy.
At the back of the house, the new master bathroom features two sinks, a free-standing tub and a roomy glassed-in shower.
Termite damage forced them to reconstruct some areas, and the outdoor wooden porches had to be replaced as well.
Though the home already had porches wrapping around the south and east sides, a new rear porch wraps around the northwest corner now, too. Ironwork was added so that climbing roses and other plants will have something to wrap around without damaging the home.
Withers is proud of her Belinda’s Dream pink roses and her Peggy Martin climber, a hardy rose that became popular after it survived Hurricane Katrina’s 20foot storm surge in 2005.
There’s another spot that soon will be a butterfly garden with fragrant Four O’Clocks. It’s along the east porch outside the master bedroom, where she and Souza can sit in the evenings in shade.
They filled the interior with an eclectic mix of traditional, contemporary and midcentury furnishings.
Souza is a fan of new construction but went along with Withers’ plan, and now, she says, he likes the home even more than she does.
The more current furniture is a concession, which she says is just fine. But the home is full, and she’s done shopping: “I’m not allowed to bring home any more stuff,” she said.