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The house wasn’t much to look at—a modest Cape Cod–style home in what was once a working-class street in Portland, Maine. But Tom Landry saw potential and opportunity.


Owner of CornerStone Building & Restoration/Homes, Landry had passed the property many times as it sat on the market, priced at a bargain $155,000. This house, he knew, was located in one of the city’s up-and-coming neighborhoods, within walking distance of fine restaurants, a performing arts theater, and a waterfront park.


In early 2010, Landry decided to take a calculated risk. He soon discovered why the house had languished.


The interior needed gutting to the shell. The first-level flooring system had to be torn out and replaced. Much of the framing had to be sistered because the house was a confusion of mismatched timbers and even rough-hewn logs, added during multiple renovations. And there was another surprise: The house wasn’t built in 1930, as first thought. It was one of the oldest homes in the neighborhood, circa 1860.


“The building was in shambles,” he says. “It was so far gone, a lot of people were intimidated by it.”


None of this is evident today.


Landry and his crew turned a builder’s nightmare into a four-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot urban gem that sold last year after being listed at $695,000. Along the way, Landry learned some lessons about how to incorporate green building design with the upscale amenities that are essential at this price point.


The success of this home is how well it balances these often-competing goals, while retaining some of the historic references of classic New England housing stock.


 


The original kitchen was a complete tear-down.


 


Concrete counter tops made by a nearby artisan


LED lighting in the ceiling and over the island reduces the electricity load.

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