The house grew from 840 sq. ft. to 3,000 sq. ft.
The original house was a simple unembellished Queen Anne “Cottage”, very typical of the large number of these homes built by an emerging middle class at the end of the nineteenth century.
Ken Finley Construction enlarged and expanded the house turning it into a beautiful example of an ornately embellished extremely Victorian Queen Anne with extensive verandahs, circular bays, multi gabled roof and lavish hand-tooled decorative mill work.
Ken Finley Construction has turned a small and modest Queen Anne into a beautiful and luxurious five bedroom Victorian home with all the amenities to accomodate the owners.
Concrete and marble dominate the kitchen and first floor living spaces giving them a cool and sophisticated look. A meditation room has been added to the original space and music is piped into all rooms with customized settings for each inhabitants taste. The extensive verandahs allow the owners to enjoy this vintage neighborhood and their beautiful home.
- That Is The Question!
© 1999 - Healdsburg Tribune
Look around Healdsburg right now and you will see a lot of construction going on. North of town, there are four or five subdivisions in progress - building beautiful new homes with all the amenities of modern living, and ready for the new owners to choose carpet styles, window coverings, tiles and countertops in any favorite color.
Most of the new homes range in price from the mid-$200,000 - the mid-$300,000.
Throughout the area, there is another kind of construction under way - remodeling of existing structures.
Older homes are being raised, new foundations built, second stories added, as well as additional ground level rooms as space permits. Some interiors are being gutted and new, open spaces created.
Which is best? It depends on many things.
“If you already have a house, you certainly might want to look at enlarging or remodeling it, especially with the cost of new houses and land”, said Ken Finley, who is currently remodeling an 1800's house on the corner of Johnson and Sherman.
“This is one of the most extensive remodeling jobs we've done. We moved the entire house three and a half feet, excavated a basement and basically turned a two story house into a three story,” Ken said.
With remodeling, he said, you're already ahead because you're starting with something. If you like your neighborhood, you can remodel and it's like a new home. The advantage is that you get more value for your money.
You don't have to buy land or pay the fees required of new construction.
“You can redo the kitchen, the bath, add a room, or raise the existing house and double your square footage. The value of homes is not going down,” said Ken.
So, housing, new or used, is a good investment right now, and expected to continue to increase in value.
© 2002- The Press Democrat
Working with architect Tom Reddy and contractor Ken Finley, both highly regarded in the Healdsburg area for architectural preservation, they created another wing with a large wraparound porch, a place to sip tea and greet the neighbors on warm summer evenings. That required lifting the house and moving it over several feet so the larger building would fit better on the corner lot. The original house had no foundation to speak of, requiring excavation.
It was a complicated project. The couple chose to keep the older part of the house as it was, with tranquil, old-fashioned sitting rooms for themselves on the main floor, but raising the structure 4 1/2 feet to create an open and modern living area below for the boys.
The basement includes two bedrooms, an ultra modern kitchen and a play area, with aggregate wainscotting and concrete floors and a pool table that converts to a massive family dining table at mealtimes.
