Revival on Vance: Previous Projects: Bailey Ave.

Every day on the way to work, we'd pass by a boarded up brick American Foursquare and wonder what its story was and why no one had gotten a hold of it yet to renovate and sell. To make a long story short, we became the proud owner of the Bailey house in March 2003 at the County back tax auction. We put the 13th Street house up for sale a few months later, and started making our plans to renovate the much larger Bailey house...and getting prepared for our first child to join us that November. We closed on our first home in June 2004 which allowed us to really get started on the restoration. We were very fortunate that neighbors just a block away on Chamberlain let us stay in their vacant home after they moved up North...it was a really great 1905 Victorian. The 2600 sq. ft. Bailey house had a great layout with 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths with many original features. The timing was perfect -- in February 2005, their home sold just as Bailey was ready enough for us to move in -- and find out that baby #2 was on the way! We have the fondest memories of our time at the Bailey home. It was an unbelievable undertaking for us to complete that much work on our own once the contractors finished the sheetrock, but it was worth every bit of it. We said goodbye to the Bailey home just before baby #3 arrived. We took a lot more pictures this time, so it's hard to pick ones to feature here; but here's a sampling: