The New Old Home
By Chantel Julian
It seems that today’s popular opinion is that newer is always better, and old is just, well, old. Jennifer Johnson and her husband Steve from Waseca, Minnesota don’t share that attitude; they built a new home that echoes the style of what would have been a home built during the Victorian era.
Jennifer has always had an interest in older homes, with a large regard for the Victorian style. When she and Steve decided to move, they first discussed looking for an old house to fix up, but eventually found a house lot for sale that suited their tastes. With the lot in mind, they talked about moving an old house to it, “But we wanted all the modern conveniences, which a lot of older homes don’t have – lots of closets, outlets, cupboard space – so we built a new house to look old.”
Before preparing plans for their new home, Jennifer and Steve did a lot of research to figure out exactly what they wanted. “We travel a lot and when we were planning our house, we visited a lot of old plantations, historic mansions, things like that.” They would take tours of homes and explored historic districts,
taking pictures of the rooms and house-fronts they liked.
Jennifer used the “3-D Home Architect” computer program to draw plans for their dream house. Once complete, they took the design to an architect who turned it into a plan that a contractor could follow. Building began in April of 1998 and was finished in May of 1999. “We moved in one year and a day after they started digging the basement,” Jennifer said.
Victorian homes traditionally have many small rooms, but the Johnsons wanted large rooms so they incorporated some updates on the traditional design style. The kitchen (as seen on the cover of this issue) is particularly large – it has three ovens, a six-burner stove and three refrigerators. Jennifer and Steve need an extra-large kitchen because, “Everyone always ends up in the kitchen. It is a gathering place, so our kitchen is big and it flows out into the family room.” A tin ceiling gives the kitchen added character. Jennifer bought the tin online and painted it gold. “It looks very rich with the black counters and black stove.”
In a Victorian-style home everything’s in the details, down to the light
fixtures and door handles. Jennifer and Steve ordered many of their light fixtures from the Historic Fixtures Company. The sinks and bathroom fixtures were found on antique reproduction Web sites and the door handles and window hardware came from the Antique Hardware and Home Company.
Even before the house plans came into being, they began looking for house fixtures. Jennifer and Steve found a fireplace from an old mansion in St. Paul, Minnesota, at an antique store in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Three of their light fixtures were acquired at auctions long before they wanted to build a Victorian home.
The study is Jennifer’s favorite room. French doors lead into the all walnut room with a captains ceiling. A Victorian couch and two matching chairs, dated to the 1800s, have residence in the room. They found the furniture at an antique store in Florida. An antique organ is also in the study. Jennifer said, “Large windows and stained glass inserts make the room very Victorian.”
Most of the home is custom work. “Our carpenter Lowell Kohnert was very busy.” He built a railing and staircase from a picture Jennifer showed him and constructed the fireplace and upstairs bar from a drawing.
Jennifer did a majority of the decorating inside the house. The interior of the house is complete, but there is landscaping left to be done and a deck and fishpond were just added to the outdoor décor. The Johnson’s are really happy with the way their new, built to look old, Victorian style home turned out.
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