The Winnetka Heights Holiday Home Tour is next Saturday, and it’s the perfect way to kick off your holiday season. It’s also a great excuse to be nosy!
Let’s be honest. We are all a bit nosy, and nothing scratches that itch quite like a great home tour. We get a glimpse into a cool house, a little architecture lesson, some inspiration for our own homes, and, most importantly, we are reminded about the significance of historic preservation.
As you are touring these gorgeous homes, stop and consider the time, energy, passion, and drive it took to create these showplaces. Restoration is not for the faint of heart. It takes a unique set of attributes. You must have an unbreakable spirit, an adventurous soul, and a problem-solving mindset. That describes Isaac Martinez to a tee.
River Oak Renovations on The Winnetka Heights Holiday Home Tour
Martinez landed in the insurance industry after college and enjoyed working with people. However, he always knew he wanted something different. He and his wife found a home in Winnetka Heights that was a fixer-upper.
Having grown up with a mom that figured things out, it was in his DNA to DIY. Although it was a learning experience, it got under his skin, and it was not long before he realized he had reached the proverbial fork in the road. The stars aligned and all the flipping on the side of his full-time job started to pay off. People in the neighborhood began to notice, and before long, he was taking on remodeling projects along with flips.
In 2018 his company, River Oak Renovations, finished 211 N. Rosemont. It won a preservation award from the City of Dallas and was on the 2019 Winnetka Heights Holiday Home Tour.
“That opened up more opportunities,” Martinez said. “We were still growing, and with older homes, you are forced to go slow and follow the rules. I would reach out to the landmark department, Rick Garza, who has been a great mentor, and Realtor Diane Sherman, an expert on this neighborhood. I learned as I went, and we were never embarrassed to ask questions.”
Making Old Houses Feel Like Home
Like any good flipper, Martinez would live in a home, fix it up, and then do it again.
“We’ve moved four times,” Martinez said.
Sherman called him in June of 2020 to say a house had just come on the market and she wanted to know his thoughts. He raced over to see 227 N. Rosemont.
“I saw the deep front yard where our two boys could play and noticed the street was full of kids their age,” he said. “It was love at first sight. It felt like home.”
They purchased it and got to work.
“We gutted it and flipped the layout,” Martinez said. “There was a secondary den that had originally been a bedroom, so we converted it back into a bedroom. Off the back of the house, we pushed the kitchen walls out and all of the cased openings were removed to open up the house and give it a grander feeling.”
The cabinetry in the back was redone, and wainscoting was added to the middle room. But the real fun was upstairs. Martinez knew the landing area did no work for what he had in mind. He wanted to break up the second level and create a more centered landing so a bathroom could be in the middle.
“There was an office and a bedroom,” Martinez said. “We flopped those and made the bedroom for our two boys with a cool built-in bunk bed. The rest of it became a playroom. Technically we reduced the bedrooms, but we don’t care. We can change it back if we decide to sell. It’s my favorite part of the house and it’s perfect for kids.”
Winnetka Heights History Comes Alive
Of course, a lot of history is associated with any house of this age. If you read last week’s post, I’m giving up an answer to one of the quiz questions to win tour tickets, so pay attention!
One of the four Winnetka Heights developers, John Phillips Blake, lived in what is now known as The Turner House at 401 N. Rosemont Ave. The principal bedroom was on the second floor. He realized his window would look out onto an alley if the lots were designed alike. So, he made the lots on the 200 block of Rosemont longer. In particular, this house and the neighboring one have no alleyways because Blake did not want to see an alley from his bedroom.
Entrepreneur C.R. McHenry and his family were the first lucky owners. Uncle Mack, as he was fondly called, owned and operated both the Roswin Theater and the Texas Theater, where police found Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963, and which has now been completely renovated and revived.
There is so much to learn on home tours. Ask for the stories because you can be nosy next week!
If you can’t answer our quiz questions from last week to score a free pair of tickets to the Winnetka Heights Holiday Home Tour, you can purchase yours here!
