Washington house’s renovations make it a home

WASHINGTON — The Murphy house in Washington is well over a century old, a fact one might never guess at a glance thanks to a litany of renovations the family’s made since moving in around 2008.

As of now, the home’s list of renovations include a side room division, the installation of a porch, three bedroom remodels, two bathroom modernizations, a new patio and, most recently, a kitchen overhaul that tore out a wall and installed new pecan hardwood flooring, finished just in time for Thanksgiving.

Timmins Construction LLC handled many of those changes. Co-owner Bruce Timmins said a house of that age made the process labor-intensive.

“It’s more challenging because you never know what we’re going to run into,” he said. “We always find something that was built wrong or that we have to repair while we’re doing it … you’ve got to kind of like doing it because it’s not like new construction, it’s not quick and clean.”

Still, Timmins said it was rewarding to work on the home.

“We really appreciated the Murphys letting us make the renovations to their house that we did,” he said. “It’s taking something that’s old and kind of worn out, and rather than just taking it down, throwing it away, we can revitalize it.”

The Murphy family, for their part, said they were happy with the changes as well.

Despite the replacement and remaking of so many parts, Brian Murphy said it still felt like home.

“We’ve made it ours, we put our touch on it,” he said. “It’s still that home that we liked originally, and wanted to live in. We’ve just now customized it to what fits our family … We’ve raised our kids here, we’ve done homecomings here, we’ve done how many thanksgivings, how many birthdays.”

Some fundamental pieces remain from the original house, including a fireplace, much of the trim, and some bookshelves built into the wall.

Murphy said he had no plans to cease improvement efforts either, updating and upgrading the house one step at a time. Some items left on the list include a new fence, remodeling the remaining bedrooms, stair improvements and floorboard replacements.

The drive for changes is not born from distaste for the current house. Murphy said he was quite happy with its current state, in fact, but that improvements were always on the radar.

“I want to be proud of what we have, and make it something I didn’t as a child,” he said. “And I want my kids to have something … they can be happy and be proud of. And I think keeping things looking nice is just something we should be responsible for, as citizens of our community.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com