New House Looks Just Like The Old One

New House Looks Just Like The Old One BUILDINGS Houses 22-1-23 There's only one noticeable difference between Freneva and Bob Brimacomb's new house and the old one standing next to it. The roof on the new house isn't pitched as steeply as the roof on the older house. Otherwise, the new house is nearly identical to the old house Freneva grew up in. Both are four-square, two-story homes of approximately the same size. The interior layout and finish were also designed to match the original house, which will be torn down next spring. "We were flying by the seat of our pants, but we're really quite pleased with the way it turned out," says Freneva, adding that there were a lot of challenges in designing the house and finding materials to build it with. But why build a new house just like the old one? When the couple retired from their Waterloo, Iowa, jobs and returned to the Decorah-area of Iowa to be closer to family, they entertained the notion of restoring Freneva's old family home. But the house was in bad shape and restoration presented many problems. "I told Bob that if I couldn't have the old house and fix it up, I wanted one that looked just like it and had as many of the things from the old house as possible," Freneva said. Features moved included two stained glass windows, doors, light fixtures, furnace, water heater, and as much of the woodwork as could be salvaged. "Matching the woodwork was the biggest challenge," says Freneva. "Southern Yellow Pine was used in the original house and that's very hard to find anymore. We finally found a woodworker who could match it, although we used as much of the old wood as possible." The main floor of the house includes a kitchen, library, bathroom and laundry room. It also has a staircase in the center, instead of on the side like the old house, to let them move furniture upstairs. Relocating the stair-case accounts for the slightly bigger dimensions of the new house, Freneva explains. The Brimacombs broke ground for their house in September of 1996 and moved in the following April. Since then, they've added two porches and a deck so they can enjoy summer evenings. They say they couldn't have successfully completed the project without the help of lo-cal contractors, plumbers and appliance sup-pliers. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Freneva and Bob Brimacomb, 2497 340th St., Decorah, Iowa 52101 (ph 319 735-5771).

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