226 S. Edgefield
Veta Redmond and her husband, Peter Murgola, boldly tackled their two-story, 3,400-square-foot 1911 Winnetka Heights home. Redmond says their real estate agent, upon showing them the dilapidated, wreck of a home, told them, “You don’t want to do this. Don’t do this.”

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“I don’t know that we would call ourselves 100 percent preservationists,” Redmond says, “but we wanted to do what had been done originally as much as possible, especially on the outside.” That included restoring the structure to a single-family home from a duplex, and removing two perimeter stairs and replacing them with a single central stair in the same location that it had originally been. During demolition phase, Redmond and Murgola found many treasures they reused in the final project — five original glass doors with a distinctive arts and crafts design moved to the enlarged kitchen, and original wood benches now flank the dining room and formal sitting room. They had planned to sand and stain them, but Redmond saw them in mid-sand with patches of old paint still clinging to the wood. She told the contractor to stop there and leave them in that condition. They moved a heavy, scrolled wood structure from the exterior porte-cochère to the interior; it is now an immense fireplace mantle. The chandelier in the main sitting room also is original to the home. It was painted a “heinous, bright gold,” so they took it to a restorer who dipped it in acid, etched it, and dated it to 1907. The large kitchen with stainless steel appliances and the master bathroom are of a size appropriate to a modern lifestyle, but they are designed with a nod to older tastes. Bathtubs are historic recreations, and new white cabinetry stands on feet. Upon completion, Redmond and Murgola’s real estate agent, who once called the residence “The Silence of the Lambs house”, told them, “I’m so glad that you had the vision that I didn’t.”