Family takes on DIY home renovation project

In 2014, Jen and Ted Knights found the perfect house on the north side of Iowa City.

The only catch? It needed a lot of work, and they needed somewhere to live immediately. They had sold their previous home after finding a new one, but that deal fell through, leaving them in homeowner limbo.

They were working with Iowa City's UniverCity Neighborhood Partnership, which purchases old homes in core neighborhoods near the University of Iowa campus, refurbishes them and sells them to families. Often the homes have been turned into multiunit rental properties and need a significant amount of work to be ready for single-family occupancy again.

In most cases, the city does the renovations before offering the house for sale. That can take months, however, and the Knights needed a place right away.

So when they saw a 1,900 square foot house on Gilbert Street that looked promising, they asked if they could move straight in and do the work themselves. The city said yes — and gave them the $35,000 renovation budget, with a few conditions. They were given one year to spend the money and meet certain requirements, such as updating the wiring.

'We had done enough home improvement, we said, 'Yeah, that sounds kind of fun and also crazy,'' Jen said.

The house, built in 1928, was converted into a duplex in the 1940s. The Knights moved in with their two children and several cats a year ago and have been knocking down walls, ripping up floors and hanging new cabinets ever since.

They completely gutted the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, removed an upstairs kitchenette and widened doorways and rooms.

The couple has full-time jobs — she works at the University of Iowa Foundation and as marketing director for the Mission Creek Festival, he at Forever Green — so all this has to be done in the evenings and on weekends.

'You work to the point you are exhausted and then go to sleep,' Ted said.

Essentially acting as a general contractor has been a major learning experience, he said. He has done renovation work before, but never to this extent. Some things, such as wiring and plumbing, were done by outside professionals. Others, such as woodwork and laying flooring, the couple did themselves.

It has made for a hectic year. When their new refrigerator was delivered, it couldn't fit through the kitchen door and sat in the dining room until the door was widened. The kitchen project was the biggest part of the remodel. They took the room back to its studs, knocking out a closet and a hot water chimney, putting in new flooring and new appliances and hanging new cabinets.

That meant months of doing dishes in the bathtub and cooking with a microwave and toaster oven.

'There were a lot of paper plates and carryout — whatever we could do to maintain sanity,' Jen said.

Dishes in the tub were not part of the original plan. The second story had a kitchen they planned to use while renovating the first floor. But once the plumbers started opened up walls and working on the downstairs plumbing, it was easiest to do the work on the second floor at the same time, which included removing the upstairs kitchen, expanding a sunroom and doubling the size of the master bath, where they installed a six-foot long jet tub and a separate shower area.

Despite the occasional chaos, they haven't regretted their choice, the couple said.

'Having this vision in our head of where we were going to be in a year helped a lot,' Jen said.

The work isn't finished yet — lots of finishing touches remain. They ripped carpet off the wood stairs, but haven't refinished them yet. Ted's next major project is refurbishing the windows, which he wants to do instead of replacing them outright.

The same attitude that let them see new possibilities in an old house extends to the furnishings.

'The most literal sense of the word eclectic is sourcing from all different eras and styles,' Jen said.

Furniture and pieces throughout the home come from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Stuff Etc., the Salvage Barn and Craigslist. Other pieces are family heirlooms, like an antique Hoosier cabinet they designed a space for in the kitchen. In the living room, a towering suit of armor stands guard next to the fireplace, designed by a client at Ted's workplace in honor of the family's last name. Another knight, this one made of concrete, keeps watch near the front porch.

The UniverCity program started in 2011 and has taken on 57 houses. Two will be available for sale in April, and about six more will be renovated in 2016.

'It's our belief that neighborhoods surrounding the campus benefit from having owner-occupied houses in them,' said Stan Laverman, senior housing inspector for the City of Iowa City. 'We believe people should be able to live close to where they work, and the rental market was pricing people out of homes close to downtown. We want to provide homes that are safe and affordable for working families.'

People interested in buying a house through the program need to apply and meet certain income requirements. Those on the waiting list have first right of refusal when new homes come on the market, so Laverman recommends families who might be interested in purchasing a UniverCity home apply as soon as they can.

Three families, including the Knights, have taken on their own renovations through the program. Laverman said those have been special circumstances — when the Knights bought their home, the program had 17 homes in need of renovations and was short-staffed.

'We realized we had an opportunity for a family that had some working knowledge of renovation and seemed to have a clear understanding of what needed to be done,' he said. 'There aren't many people that are looking for a fixer upper. That's a niche market.'