CityView Magazine

36 | Winter • 2009 a planned veteran's park is established. Then the vista will be inspiring. While the house had great potential, it also had issues. Inside, it was a green monster, according to the Claytons. Green paint, green carpeting, even green rollup shades; not just any green, a downright unappealing shade of green. It lacked a kitchen with modern appliances, and on the outside, its curbside appeal was limited with paint consisting of a builder's grade white with black shutters. Renovations to the house started as soon as the Claytons moved in and included removing the carpet and linoleum to find beautiful maple wood floors underneath. Remnants of a small circular fire near the downstairs fireplace had to be repaired and the remaining maple floors had to be refinished. The Claytons also renovated two upstairs bathrooms, upgraded the upstairs heating and cooling system, added a screened in porch, a wrap-around deck, and moved the laundry room from the basement to the first floor. And, of course, a new coat of interior paint made a difference. While the Claytons were allowed to renovate at will inside the home, exterior renovations had to be cleared by the Fayetteville Historic Resources Commission. Insulated windows, for example, were not allowed in keeping with the historic integrity of the house. To sustain some of the upstairs renovations, the house underwent a bit of structural re-engineering to bolster the upstairs bathroom floor so that it could sustain the weighty tiles in the renovated lavatory. But, installing a modern kitchen became the first priority as well as the first major renovation project of 2001. The original tiny kitchen now serves as a small television room and its spacious replacement occupies what used to be maid's quarters added to the house sometime after World War II. In fact, getting to the office required going outside the main house and entering through an outside door. A wall had to be removed to meld the area into the main portion of the house. The only original item in the new kitchen is the big double sink. Updated with many modern amenities, the house retains the look and feel of a fine home of an earlier era. Colonial Revival became popular in the 1890s through the 1900s when prosperous Americans began to appreciate their colonial history and build homes depicting the architecture of early colonial America.

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