Perfect Partners
by Randy Johnson / photography by Torrey Ferrell
There are partners in every effort to build, restore, or renovate a fine home. When the house is in Blowing Rock, the partnership needs to include Mother Nature. That’s what Jeff Zenger, owner of Lisha Construction in Lewisville, and Suzanne Wilson, of S. Wilson Designs in Blowing Rock, achieved in their renovation of Curt Andrews’ house. For Wilson, the picture perfect view of Grandfather Mountain demanded big-picture curb appeal. For Zenger, “The house needed to match the view.” “The home was a white elephant on a hill,” Wilson laughs. It was “actually white” in a setting more attuned to sedate colors. The new deep green color required broad accent pieces to boost the architectural interest of cedar lap board siding.
A string of busy dormers and windows were removed. “Now you really appreciate the two turrets that anchor the porch,” says Wilson. Blowing Rock passersby now see a “house that fits its environment. It’s stately, less intrusive, even calming—and that was the goal.” With the house and Mother Nature in synch, a rare pairing of designer and contractor tackled the home’s interior.
Zenger and Wilson’s first project was a custom home in Lewisville. Wilson soon realized that “Jeff is a jewel of a contractor. We’re both perfectionists—definitely not short cut people.” “She knows what she wants,” Zenger says. “She’s a decisive visionary.”
Wilson’s and Zenger’s Blowing Rock project, their second, was a truly interesting undertaking. The house was built in the 1970s and expanded in the ‘80s with conflicted results. “I’d call the house a hodgepodge,” says Zenger. “Wilson says, “Steps lead upstairs from both the original and added-on sides of the house. The only second floor connection was through a closet!”
The solution: Turn one of the two upstairs bedrooms into a master suite sitting room. The “closet connection” became a master bath. The bedroom got a built-in bookcase and window seating areas. Wilson designed new window trim throughout. The owner liked the existing bead board, so more was added. Rich pine floors replaced carpet to match the rest of the house.
A kitchen pantry and an “odd alcove” vanished and an island installed. The claustrophobic original kitchen got a bank of windows and an open ceiling that extends to the roof beams.
Now the kitchen flows into the adjoining dining room and living room beyond. “To prevent that side of the house from being one straight wall,” says Zenger, “Suzanne added a bay window-like extension to the dining room.”
Outside, beneath a newly raised porch ceiling of rich tongue and groove paneling, Grandfather Mountain still looms—no changes there. “You start running into things in a really extensive renovation,” says Zenger. One of those was the chimney. “Five flues in the top fifteen feet were just stacked on each other. They all moved!” Zenger used lightweight concrete to solve the problem.“ Experience makes the difference in cases like that.”
Serendipity ushered both Zenger and Wilson into their profession. Zenger’s path started with summer visits to his Grandfather. “He’d always tell me, ‘Some other man did that, why can’t you?’” After Zenger renovated a 150-year-old home in Baltimore’s stringently historic Fell’s Point, and it sold it in two weeks, he moved to Winston-Salem and satisfied word of mouth has spelled success.
“When I talk to subcontractors, the fact that I can do what I’m asking changes their approach to me. I’m not your everyday builder.” Suzanne Wilson started as a department store “visual director” in Charlotte and was responsible for “designing a store, and the shops inside it, to draw people in.” She and her husband built a home in Blowing Rock to her specs ten years ago and she started taking commissions after people kept stopping by to ask, “‘who was your designer?’”
“On this job, the client gave Suzanne and me free reign,” Zenger says, “and the message was ‘make it fine.’ I think we did that.” “We found a great solution,” Wilson says. “The client is very happy.”
There was one final addition, also urged by Mother Nature. After a winter of frequent multi-day power outages, Andrews asked Zenger to install a electrical generator. “Finishing touches,” says Zenger. “Making it perfect!” Perfect for Blowing Rock.
Vendor List:
A Cut Above Landscaping: 828-963-1153 / Willow Tree cabinets, Bo Kimry: 336-451-1374 / Wayne Bailey Plumbing: 336-817-5926 / Webb Heating and Air: 336-998-2121 / Triad Electric, Blake Johnson: 336-978-6566 / Salem Woodworking, Dale Gramley: 336-768-7443 / Suzanne Wilson Decorator: 704-607-7270 / Dobrowolski Painting, Robert Dobrowolski 336-669-8972
