In the mid-1940s, not long after World War II ended, a woman moved into the Munger Place home at 710 Dumas Street. Her two sisters lived on the same block. She would remain there seven decades until leaving for an assisted living facility last year.
When she moved out, the 1921-built home still had many of its original elements, including double-hung windows with wavy glass, and beveled glass exterior and interior doors. It was also in need of significant repairs, making it an ideal project for Steel Toe Stiletto, the general contracting company owned by Tam Pham.
“Tam is a true custom builder,” Allie Beth Allman & Associates’ Gia Marshello said. “What makes her unique is that she goes into these dilapidated properties and makes them gorgeous.”
Pham says she accidentally stumbled into the general contracting business 15 years ago. While looking for her first home, she planned on getting something that needed a light cosmetic remodel. Instead, she ended up with two uninhabitable historic houses that required gut-to-stud renovations. She enjoyed the projects so much she left her job in corporate outside sales to focus full time on remodeling homes.
“It’s a labor of love,” she says. “I love looking at a home and seeing its potential.”
As for her company name, Pham recalls meeting with a contractor and seeing something done wrong. She jokingly warned him, “Don’t make me take off my stiletto.” Upon hearing the story later that day, a friend said “Steel Toe Stiletto.” The name stuck.
Over the past five years, Steel Toe Stiletto has earned two Preservation Dallas Preservation Achievement Awards and an ARC Building Excellence Award for Best Conceptual Design. Pham says she enjoys finding homes that need the most help, properties many would look at and immediately deem “teardown.”
“Development through preservation is critically important to our city’s history,” she said. “It is decidedly greener by avoiding the landfills and it stabilizes neighborhoods.”
Pham is passionate about art and architecture with a focus on color. When she starts a project, her first priorities are to stabilize the structural integrity and update everything to code. She then works to restore the home in a manner that maintains its classic period charm.
“My goals in all of my projects are to tastefully create cohesive spaces that respect the age and style of the home and surrounding neighborhood,” she said.
By her standards, the home at 710 Dumas was in fairly decent shape. Still, it required a new foundation, plaster removal, new plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems, and general upgrades across the board. During the course of renovations, she discovered that the original floors were in excellent condition. They had been protected for decades by carpeting someone once felt compelled to install. While cleaning a rather dated looking golden chandelier, she also discovered a pristine silver-plated classic underneath.
Pham enlisted the help of an out-of-state colleague to restore the original windows and doors. She enclosed the back porch to create a mudroom/laundry. She also added an upstairs addition and two-car garage. The home now has four bedrooms and an office that could easily be converted to a fifth. The wrap-around porch looks out on a neighborhood park and the popular Garden Cafe. As an added bonus, the home also comes with transferable approved tax abatement.
“It’s a lovely property,” she said. “It had problems but we got them straightened out to make it a great place.”
Gia Marshello with Allie Beth Allman & Associates has listed 710 Dumas St. for $649,000.
