Renovation Was No 'Small' Job

Jeff and Susie Small don't do anything halfway.

When they decided to renovate the little house on South Cleveland Street, they didn't settle for mere cosmetic changes, like new paint or wallpaper or carpet.

The Smalls stripped the house down to its foundation - and they even put that up on jacks and repaired it.

It took about two years of full- and part-time work on the house, but they were so successful at replacing a condemned eyesore with a showplace that they were honored Tuesday by the city of Warsaw.

During an open house the Smalls hosted Tuesday afternoon, Warsaw Mayor Ernie Wiggins presented them with an engraved plate as a token of the city's appreciation of their efforts.

"You're planting the seed for the rest of the community," Wiggins told them.

Trish Brown, director of the Warsaw Community Development Corp., gave the couple a framed certificate.

"We just wanted to commend you for taking responsibility for improving and beautifying this property," she said.

The Smalls still have some odds and ends to finish, but, for the most part, their two-year project is finished.

"When we first started, everybody here thought we were nuts," Susie Small said last week. "Now that it's getting done, it makes you feel good because it looks good. You've done something nice."

The Smalls bought the house for $10,000 more than two years ago. They started their project by tearing out the bushes that completely hid the front of the house, removing the old porch, replacing the foundation and tearing off all the old siding.

On the inside, they gutted the house, moving walls and doors and replacing the wiring, plumbing and heating systems.

They did all the work themselves on a pay-as-you-go basis. City building inspector Gene Oliver gave them a copy of new construction building codes, and he and building inspector Pam Kennedy kept in touch and checked on the work from time to time.

"If you're gonna do it, you might as well do it right," Susie said.

Sometimes just getting the house ready for renovation was worse than the repair, Susie said.

For instance, the previous owners never threw out trash, she said, they just dumped it in the basement.

"I wore a face mask, and it took us four days just to shovel it all out of the basement," Susie said.

They hired someone to finish the drywall, which Jeff hung, and to install the flooring because the carpet and linoleum dealer wouldn't guarantee the products otherwise.

Everything else they did themselves. Susie, who worked last summer at a local greenhouse/nursery, did all the landscaping.

It cost them about $55,000, they said, for the 1,000-square-foot home, with two bedrooms, 1-1/2 baths, a large kitchen and an attached oversized two-car garage. The house sits on a large corner lot.

"It seems like it's taken a long time," said Jeff, a Zimmer employee.

"Even the kids are saying it's starting to look like home," Susie said of their three children - two daughters, ages 9 and 11, and a son, age 13.

Their neighbors are "thrilled," Susie said, and one even offered to pay them just for improving their corner. They get a lot of cars "stopping and gawking," and other people in the neighborhood are starting to take a renewed pride in their property.

Their original plan was to fix up the house and sell it, but the family has decided to stay for a while.

For now, they just want to sit back and enjoy the results of their labor.

"It's been tiring, it's been upsetting, it's been miserable," Susie said. "But near the end, it's fun."