The team’s project was named a 2022 Grand American Residential Design Award winner in the renovation category by the Florida-based American Institute of Building Design. The “grand” designation is given “to entries that stand out among the other entries in their category,” according to the AIBD’s website.

The team of Michael Roman, Michael Miller, Ben DeRidder and Stephanie Sotka designed the project for homeowner Carol Quandt, who is chief operations officer for 41 Lumber.

The renovation plan addresses two additions built on the home that did not fit its Victorian style, so they will be removed and re-built, according to information 41 Lumber submitted to AIBD. A small existing front porch will be removed as well to allow for a larger, wrap-around porch.

The existing kitchen is set to become a sunroom, the dining room a family room. The den will be the new kitchen and a portion of the living room converted to a dinette, according to the team’s plans.

THE 41 LUMBER design team’s image of how the Brown Street house will appear after the renovation is completed. Work on the project is slated to start later this year.

Upstairs, two small bedrooms and closet spaces will be combined into a master suite that takes advantage of a new second-floor deck and the view, as well as gathering morning sun for the homeowner.

“As soon as Carol told me about this project, my eyes lit up right away because Victorians are my style, from back when I was a builder,” said Roman, the lead residential designer. “That’s what kept me in the project because it was right up my alley. When I was building back in the day, we did a lot of restoration work with historical societies. And that’s one of the things that was so neat, to be able to see homes built in the late 1800s, pictures and research of what they used to look like.”

He continued, “In order to get grants from the historical societies you’d have to completely restore it to how it was built originally. For example, looking at old pictures and seeing that all these windows weren’t there, so you’d have to pull them out. Or noticing that there was a window that’s now been covered up, which was then part of restoring a historically accurate window.”

The project is a fusion of keeping the essence of the old Victorian home but adding in modern and contemporary elements Quandt wanted, he said.

Technical details for the house came from “A Field Guide to American Houses,” which breaks down every type of home — Victorian, Colonial — and all the genres and subgenres, Roman said.

“Some of it was from experience, some were from pictures that Carol had liked and a lot of it was already on the structure — brackets, pediments on the roof, etc.,” Roman said. “It was a matter of making a decision, and that’s where our 3-D modeling software at the (41 Lumber) Design Center came in, which allowed us to see how the home would look like with/without these features. I am glad that we decided to keep them.”

One of the benefits of working on old homes like this are “happy discoveries,” Roman said.

“As you start opening walls up, one often finds little calling cards from builders who’ve worked on it before. Or sometimes you’ll remove the flooring, you’ll find chunks of hardwood flooring with names/initials of carpenters who worked on it — back in the day, people were really proud of their work and art,” he said. “The biggest challenge for me would be getting the hardwood floor refinished back into what it used to be; there are lots of elements that need to be taken into account to flatten it out and save the floor.”

The team will break ground on the renovation later this year.

The 41 Lumber project is the first from the Upper Peninsula to win an ARDA award, the company said.

Formerly known as the AIBD Design Competition, the ARDA 2022 program drew a 14-year high of 168 entries from 63 designers, including AIBD members and non-members. The ARDA gave out a record 110 awards. Submissions range through all types of design, from remodeling to custom homes.

For the ARDA, all entries are judged on their own merits. The judges are selected each year from the design and construction fields. This gives every entry the same chance to receive an award.