For Scott A. Willasch, restoration is better the second time around.
In January 2006 a fire all but destroyed his dream home in the 1800 block of Eastern Ave. He remembers it like yesterday's weather.
"I came home from work on Friday, Jan. 13th about 9 p.m. and saw 30-foot flames shooting out of the front of my house," he recalled. "My roommate's laptop exploded."
Now, almost 19 months after the fire and 10 years since he purchased the property, he's ready to move back in. It's been a rocky road.
"Every now and then I feel like a beaten man," Willasch said, adding quickly, "but I can see the light."
Looking for commercial space, Willasch purchased his large East Baltimore property in February 1998 for $75,000.
The deal included a three-story, concrete structure facing Eastern Avenue and an adjoining two-story house that fronts on South Durham Street. Once a funeral home, the first floors of the two buildings form an L that will become the cafe he always dreamed of owning.
After the purchase, Willasch secured a $70,000 construction loan and kicked in an additional $40,000 of his own. The 38-year-old contractor did most of the renovations of what amounted to a 3,000-square-foot shell.
It took a year and a half to make the second and third floors of the Eastern Avenue home habitable. He took up residence in the summer of 1999, continuing to renovate up until the fire.
"The fire torched the entire third floor and the roof, then into the second floor," Willasch said. "But it was the demolition after the fire that worried me. Water destroyed the entire first floor as well [and] I was concerned about mold and rot."
Willasch settled with the insurance company for $200,000. With another $35,000 of his own money and a lot of sweat equity, he began again.
"People always walk through the house and say, 'Where are we?'" said Willasch, laughing at the property's unique layout.
On the three-story Eastern Avenue side, the building boasts a multipaned, storefront window and a door between three concrete columns at street level. A 2-foot-wide walkway separates the house from a commercial property next door. An outside iron staircase climbs to the second and third levels of the Eastern Avenue house and Willasch's living quarters.
Here shiny aluminum air conditioning ducts hang from the ceiling, standing out against an exposed brick wall and another painted bright blue. The house is warmed by radiant floor heat. The kitchen sits in the center of the second level with cherry cabinets ready to be hung.
The kitchen floor is tiled with 18-inch squares of travertine stone. That contrasts with the Brazilian cherry flooring used in the second-floor living room and a back room. Windows on the room's south side provide a sunny area for guest or family room.
The rear of this level opens onto a rooftop platform deck over the Durham Street's first level. A great spot for outdoor entertaining, Willasch has built a lattice fence along the deck's north side with bushes and flowers placed in raised wooden planters. The concrete wall on the north side - the rear of his neighbor's property - has been painted blue and white with a large green four-leaf clover.
The street level of both houses, meanwhile, stands empty, ready to fulfill the last phase of Willasch's dream.
"Once the house is done, I plan on a reappraisal," he said. "And going deep in debt over my cafe."
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