Craig Rose, owner of Bathworks & Renovations, Summit, spent a full year working in the house before anyone else. “When the club first called me, it looked like it was raining downstairs; there were leaks everywhere,” he remembers. “There was lots of weird stuff going on, and a lot of work went into fixing it because of years of deferred maintenance.”
Rose and his two full-time employees remediated asbestos, ripped out and replaced all the plumbing, installed French drains, removed cast-iron radiators and large steam pipes, rewired all the electrical and replaced fuse boxes, put in fire doors and smoke- and fire-alarm systems, prepared a first-floor bathroom to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and replaced copper boxed-in gutters around the mansion’s exterior perimeter.
In addition, Rose and crew spent a great deal of time in the mansion’s dark and dank basement. It was waterproofed and drywalled so separate designers could create spaces for a theater, children’s playroom, wine cellar and wine tasting room.
As work progressed, a club member stationed daily at the front door checked in subcontractors and 43 interior designers— each of whom were assigned a different room, even hallways, in the mansion. All the subs and designers offered their labor and materials for free or at drastically reduced prices. An insulation contractor blew closed-cell spray-foam insulation into the walls and the attic to make the building airtight and provide an R-6 insulating value per inch. A hardwood flooring contractor sanded, repaired and replaced portions of the flooring. Tile contractors installed top-quality tile in the sunroom, mudroom and four bathrooms. A roofing contractor installed a new composite roof system. Window installers showcased different types of windows and doors throughout the home.
Meanwhile, Rose supported the subcontractors and designers in any way necessary. For example, the kitchen designer who donated an entire kitchen—appliances, cabinets, countertops, lighting—for one-fifth the typical cost, needed the 20-foot kitchen ceiling lowered. Rose’s team accommodated the request and the ceiling now is 16-feet high.
“The before and after pictures tell the story,” Rose says. “When you walked in after all the work was done, it just knocked you off your feet. The level of work was incredible.”