Location, location and amenities to spare
Beth and Danny Massaro say that it wasn’t the size of their Tudor-style home, or the fact that it was filled with amenities, that prompted them to buy it in 1990.
The big plus was that it was located in the Bay View neighborhood.
“Danny lived in Bay View his whole life, and his parents and even grandparents lived here,” said Beth.
“Friends of his father were the second owners of this house, and when my father-in-law found out it was going to be for sale, he let us know,” she said.
“I wanted to stay in Bay View because all my friends and relatives were here,” added Danny. “But also because it’s such a great neighborhood, and it’s so close to everything that is happening in Milwaukee.”
The fact that the home was located across the street from Humboldt Park was also a bonus.
“With the park we didn’t have to have a house with a big backyard,” said Beth. “Our son, Nickolas, who now lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, played in the park all the time” when he was growing up.
But location aside, the size of the home and all the architectural extras did eventually impress them.
Beth said that because they had been living in a 900-square-foot duplex, when they first toured the 1929 home with her father-in-law (Dan Massaro), what first impressed her was its size.
“The first thing I thought about was Christmas parties and all the people we could get in here. … It’s about 2,900 square feet and it has three bedrooms, 1 1⁄2 bathrooms, a dining room, living room, kitchen, sunroom and a rec room in the basement,” and there is an abundance of storage space.
Next, they both realized how many unique features the house had.
“The craftsmanship that was put into this building — it’s something no one else has. I loved the character,” said Danny.
“And I was pretty much shell-shocked by all the amenities,” added Beth.
Throughout the house there is French plaster, thick crown molding, large French windows made of leaded glass that are topped with ached or squared transom windows, thick woodwork and heavy hardwood doors with one to eight panels, and original tile in the bathrooms.
On the first floor there are also curved ceilings and doorways, doors and built-in cabinets that have curved or pointed tops, leaded glass doors in the builtin cabinets, a wood-burning fireplace in the living room that has a carved concrete front, and unusual light fixtures.
There’s also an entry hall with an original tile floor, a decorative exterior door with a small leaded glass window in the center, and a leaded glass interior door.
“We had to have a storm door custom made for the entryway,” because of its shape, said Danny.
Near the entryway there’s also a curved staircase with an iron railing that the couple say they have been told may have been made by artist Cyril Kolnik, and a large three-part leaded glass window with a stained glass crest near the top.
On the second floor, which also can be accessed by a back staircase, there are angled ceilings and original hardwood floors.
The couple said that although the house was in good shape when they bought it, it did need a bit of freshening up.
So they almost immediately began doing restoration work — much of it themselves — and they haven’t stopped yet.
Danny said one of the first projects they did was to strip old finish from all their doors, windows and molding.
“We did that over the first 10 years,” said Beth. “That was our (yearly) winter project, and we just recently finished it.” Both are now retired; he worked at FedEx, she worked at AT&T.
Danny also did restoration work in the first-floor powder room, where he removed broken pieces of tile and replaced them with good pieces that were under their vanity, and the couple refinished every doorknob in the house.
They also learned to do caning and re-caned some of the radiator covers, and they stripped all the hardwood floors on the second floor and then later had professionals sand and stain them.
In about 2007 they tackled their kitchen, which had been renovated by the previous owner. But because they wanted to keep the home as original as possible, they kept a similar layout.
“We added extra-wide countertops, new cabinets and a new sink,” said Danny. “We used glass mosaic tile in blue, white and gray for the backsplash, added a Corian countertop, and had beveled glass put in some of the cabinet fronts.”
The couple also removed a partial wall with cabinets that divided the kitchen from the powder room, giving them a more open concept look and better access to the entryway.
They recently talked about their home while their rescued cat, Zelda, loudly vied for their attention.
Question: Did you have to tackle any big projects over the years?
Danny: We had the chimney rebuilt, some plumbing and electrical done, and added a new furnace.
Q: How many doors and windows do you have?
Danny: We have 31 doors and 36 windows, not counting the storm windows. We stripped and stained almost all the windows and doors.
Q: What’s your style of decorating?
Beth: Antiques mixed with some traditional pieces. We have antiques mostly from family members and we like to get things at antique stores. We get them cheap and fix them up. We also get things from friends.
Q: Where did you get some of your favorite antique pieces?
Beth: The dresser in Nikolas’ old bedroom (which is Zelda’s room now) was from Danny’s mom and dad. It was painted yellow and I stripped it. The dressers in the master were from Danny’s grandma. They’re mahogany.
Q: Your light fixtures are unique. Are they original to the house?
Danny: Most of them are, but we also brought some with us from our previous home to replace ceiling fans a previous owner had installed.
Q: What are some of the most unique fixtures that are original?
Danny: The sconces on either side of the fireplace are metal and have images of knights and horses in them. The dining room chandelier has the same medieval motif. It has metal flags on top and it’s really heavy. I don’t know what it’s made of, but I always tell people to try to lift it from the bottom and no one can. I have no idea how much it weighs.
Q: How do you use your third bedroom?
Beth: It’s my craft room. Directly across the hall from that room is a space we think was once a closet for this room. It has a built-in cedar closet. Right now it’s just for storage and Zelda.
Q: What are some of the items you collect?
Beth: Fiestaware, birdhouses that I paint and small teapots. I started collecting the teapots about 30 years ago. I would find them all over. They are Hall Pottery and were promotional items for Lipton Tea. I also have a collection of Dickens villages in the cabinets in our living room.
Q: Did you make any changes in the basement?
Danny: We put in a rec room. We have a bar, a pool table and a seating area. I did it in a retro look. In one corner we have a boomerang table that pulls up to make a bar. I used black and white vinyl flooring and accented some walls in old record albums I thought were fun. This room I did myself.
Q: Who put the empty picture frames on the wall off the staircase?
Beth: I did. I got the idea from Pinterest. Some are from antique stores, some are from Danny’s father. It’s such a big wall that I knew I needed to put more on it. Before I had one large picture there.
Q: What color did you paint your fireplace wall? Beth: Green and I put a brown wax over it to give it more depth. The rest of the house is done in tans.
Danny: I made the mirror above the fireplace from an old vanity top from the ’40s. I added plaster to it to give it more substance and we painted it a gray/silver. Q: Did you do any work in your yard?
Beth: We put brick walkways in the back and front. We laid our own brick. We took out the concrete and Lannon stone that was in there ourselves, and put in red brick pavers.
Q: Any projects yet to do?
Beth: I would like to put hardwood floors in the living room, dining and sunroom. There was always carpeting in here, and we put in new carpeting when we moved in.
Q: Why did you have an etching done of your home? Danny: We had it done so we would remember our house when we have to move someday. We had it done when our son was in Iraq in about 2005.
Do you, or does someone you know, have a cool, funky or exquisite living space that you’d like to see featured in At Home? Contact Fresh home and garden editor Nancy Stohs at (414) 224-2382 or email nstohs@journalsentinel.com.