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True Grit

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True Grit

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    Richard Laughlin

    Richard Laughlin of Laughlin Homes & Restoration in Fredericksburg, Texas, added little to the square footage of this ca. 1891 pioneer homestead in the Texas Hill Country. The owners wanted to restore the home and give it modern amenities while preserving its historic integrity.

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    The structure was still occupied by the fifth generation of the original owners.

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    Richard Laughlin

    Before the restoration, there was only a rudimentary kitchen, makeshift bathroom, no internal stairs or sewer treatment. Heat came from a freestanding gas stove in the central room.

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    Richard Laughlin

    Laughlin gutted the home leaving only the massive stone walls. This view is of the kitchen from the living room. Historic light fixtures, salvaged doors and lumber give the project a period feel.

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    Richard Laughlin

    Laughlin’s crew built arched openings into the stone walls to create space and allow in more light. They poured a new concrete slab to replace decomposed log sleepers and stabilize the foundation. The original flooring was salvaged, reinstalled, and refinished.

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    Richard Laughlin

    Timber and stone salvaged from a dilapidated barn on site was used to construct a new screen porch in back. The dilapidated front porch was dismantled, the stone foundation rebuilt, and framing restored. Shiplap salvaged from an old cotton warehouse is used as porch flooring and in the master bedroom ceiling.

Priorities

  • Update a circa 1891 homestead in the Texas hill country. Existing conditions: a crude kitchen and a makeshift bathroom; stairs on the exterior of the building; a freestanding gas stove as the only heat source
  • Repurpose and modernize the living and kitchen space while respecting the pioneer home’s roots

Solutions

The fifth generation of a family had been living in this homestead until the current owners purchased it and enlisted designer Richard Laughlin to remodel it.

Laughlin’s crew cleaned and repointed the stones, which had been quarried on site in the 1800s, and gutted the interior leaving the stone walls and second floor platform intact. They reclaimed and recycled as much as they could or used historical light fixtures and salvaged doors and lumber to give the project a period feel.

The crew installed a new standing-seam metal roof and “laid wood shingles on the porches and outbuildings to provide a historic feel while reducing glare in the second floor windows,” Laughlin says. The second floor got a new master suite and an interior staircase. To open the kitchen the team created arched openings in the 18-inch-thick solid stone walls.

Judges’ comments

“They saved this house from ... rotting away and they were meticulous in bringing it back to its original condition. It was a farmstead and it still feels like a farmstead. It’s true to its original feel, as if it could have survived [in this way] the whole time.”

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