Annie and Jordan Obermann started renovating old homes for one simple reason: They felt emotionally connected to the character and quirks that made them one of a kind.
Annie’s family lived in more than a dozen houses by the time she could drive, each one another old home her mother loved working on. Jordan lived in the same house for most of his childhood, one his family remodeled significantly. The two agree that homes are made to be improved, especially the older ones that need a little extra TLC.
The couple bought their first home, a 1910 bungalow on Laporte Avenue in Fort Collins, 17 years ago and dove into the renovations as inexperienced DIYers. After foregoing an expensive countertop for a concrete one they poured themselves and fixing cabinets that were botched by a novice woodworker, they realized how much work it’d take. But it was through those experiences that they fell in love with the process.
They sold the bungalow, then bought another old house, fixed it up and sold it. Then they did it again. And again.
“Ignorance was bliss,” Jordan says of their first project. “When you’re young and energetic, you put up with things, but once you start learning the best way to do stuff, it becomes more heartbreaking when things don’t work out the way you originally wanted them to.”
And yet they believe old homes are worth the frustration of having to reengineer something 10 times.
“People pay more money to buy an older home and go through a longer design and construction process,” Annie says. “It’s worth the heartache because you end up with something that is 100-percent original.”
The Obermanns turned their renovation projects into a business in 2016 after they were approached by a producer to film a pilot for an HGTV show. It was the push they needed to open Forge & Bow Dwellings, a design-build firm based in Fort Collins that serves all of Northern Colorado.
Jessup Farm Barrel House before Bellisimo’s restoration.
After restoration. Photo by Ali Hicks-Wright.
Now they have a team of architects and project managers doing everything from new builds to home remodels, but their forte is still renovating old homes. One of their latest projects was an 1860s house and two-story barn in Longmont that had been designated as a historic landmark—a label that makes updating an old home more affordable for the homeowner but also more complicated.
Designating a historic home
Owners of a designated historic home must follow a specific protocol when making changes in order to preserve the property’s character and integrity, Annie says. She and other builders work closely with their city’s preservation ordinance to determine a home’s eligibility, and if it is eligible, whether or not the owner wants to go through the process of registering it.
Some homeowners don’t have a choice, either because they bought a home that’s already registered or because the home is located in a designated historic district (each city has a few). If that’s the case, homeowners will likely need approval for alterations so that any changes made are compatible with the area.
If the owner of an eligible historic property decides to register it, it’s up to them and their contractor to make sure any improvements comply with the guidelines they’ve committed to at the local, state or national level. In many cases, those who decide not to register must still comply with code requirements to preserve certain exterior features.
The main draw of registration is that homeowners gain access to ongoing tax credits, grants, low- or zero-interest loans and other sources of public funding to help offset the cost of improvements. But there’s also a catch: The preservation standards can be demanding, even exacting, and therefore frustrating at times.
“The trade-off is that the city has greater oversight over what changes you can make to your property,” says Maren Bzdek, historic preservation manager for Fort Collins’ Historic Preservation Commission.
The decision is also permanent or very difficult to reverse. Historic homes aren’t designated just because they’re old: They must have historic or architectural significance (for example, a specific builder, architectural style or famous person who inhabited the home), Bzdek says, so to unregister them would mean proving that they are no longer significant. Registered homes have to convey their significance, too, which is where the regulations come in.
“The major features that define it still need to be present,” Bzdek says. “If a person from the time it was built walked past it today, they would need to be able to recognize it as the same building.”
That’s why preservation committees are strict about alterations once a home makes a local, state or national registry: Someone from the early 1900s probably wouldn’t recognize vinyl siding.
This standard also makes some historically significant homes ineligible for registration. For example, properties are ineligible if they have deteriorated significantly and, as such, are too difficult to bring up to code and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, says Marian Duran, senior planner and historic preservation commission liaison for Loveland’s Historic Preservation Commission.
“Sometimes it’s so costly to do that, and people decide to demolish it and start over,” Duran says. “It’s sad, but it happens.”
Challenges and workarounds
While the stringency of regulations varies from city to city, most registered historic homes cannot undergo changes to the exterior, including the windows, siding and even landscaping, Annie says. One exception is additions, which may be permitted if they are built on the back of the home and only subtly change the roof line.
Exterior damage should be addressed, though that requires some creativity. If you’re dealing with, say, a broken window or rotten siding, you and your contractor must consult your city’s preservation ordinance before making any changes.
“They want you to repair and not replace things,” Jordan says. “Their goal isn’t to mimic old; they want it to be old. We can show them alternatives and have reasonable conversations with them, and often they’ll deem certain things acceptable.”
Those regulations can be somewhat at odds with today’s building codes, particularly energy efficiency, but they can also have an environmental benefit since fewer materials end up in the landfill. For example, old wooden windows were made to be repaired, not replaced like today’s vinyl windows, says Betsy Kellums, historic preservation planner of Greeley’s Historic Preservation Commission.
“When they built these homes, they weren’t in a mindset of just replacing things,” Kellums says. “It seems like the mentality now is that shiny and new is better, but when it comes to buildings, that’s not necessarily true.”
Still, building codes exist for a reason, and old homes shouldn’t be unsafe. Many old homes lack the infrastructure for modern-day gas and electric demands, Annie says, meaning more extensive interior work is often required to bring them up to code regardless of whether they’re registered.
A three-story addition with a pop-top done by Forge & Bow Dwellings. Photo by Christa Tippmann.
Additions upon additions
Often historic homes have already undergone multiple renovations with additions, making it a challenge to create continuity within the space. At that point, it’s a matter of figuring out which one to honor or if there’s a way to blend them all.
This is a predicament Gino Campana knows well. In 1994, he founded Bellisimo, a Fort Collins-based real estate development firm, and has spent much of his career doing historic preservation. In fact, the first home he and his wife purchased was built in 1906, and the young couple “rolled up their sleeves,” fixed a five-foot hole in the ceiling, reshored the home and did additions. Though it was a lot of work—and a good test of their marriage—it’s an experience he wouldn’t trade for anything.
Perhaps Campana’s most well-known project is Jessup Farm Artisan Village, and within it, The Farmhouse at Jessup Farm, a restaurant offering farm-fresh meals in a 130-year-old building, and the Jessup Farm Barrel House, a restored barn that serves as a brewery. The Farmhouse has undergone several additions, but Campana hasn’t tried to hide their differences. Instead, he found ways to accent them.
“One technique we like to use in historic preservation is that if we’re preserving it, we can go back and use the same materials to match it, but if we’re changing it or adding onto it, we’ll make it obvious that it’s an addition,” he says. “It’s signaling where we’re being respectful to the previous architect and builder and where we’re having a deviation for health and safety or functionality reasons.”
One of Campana’s current projects involves preserving and renovating a 1940s Streamline Moderne home on Remington Street, which has so many additions it’s considered a mansion. He’s tackling the project with his son, Maurizio Campana, a Realtor who grew up in the family business and took an interest in the dilapidated home last year.
Prior to being purchased by the Campanas in October, the property had been a sorority, fraternity and, most recently, a group home. Half of the interior was demolished before they came along, and now they’re determined to fix it up as a single-family home.
Part of what they’re doing is removing additions that weren’t done as well as the original construction. The goal is to bring out the architectural details that make it one of the only homes of its kind in the region, Campana says, including the steel elements that were derived from old ships.
But first they have to address the fact that the home is made of eight-inch cement blocks and has no thermal efficiency. It’s yet another case of leveraging their knowledge of masonry and structural engineering to figure out how to update an old home while preserving its architectural integrity.
“There are some homes you can buy in Old Town and kind of do it yourself, but this is not one of those,” Campana says. “Sometimes you have to peel back the layers and try to find the gem that’s hidden inside, and that is what’s taking place at the Remington house.”
Borgens house in Greeley, built in 1919-20. Photo courtesy of the Greeley Historic Preservation Office.
A sense of place
Most homeowners who are drawn to historic properties aren’t looking to make significant changes, but the reality is that some modern demands don’t mesh well with old layouts.
“The square footage might be fine for what you need, but maybe it’s arranged poorly,” Annie says. “Think about what the building needs versus what you’re forcing it to change to. What’s hard is if you need another bedroom: If you’re busting at the seams, that’s where you’re in a spot where you have to make big changes.”
Tasteful updates are important, Campana says, because if the interior of a historic home was redone exactly how it was originally, no one would buy it. Still, he recommends changes that feel like an organic extension of the home’s character and style.
“We all have that happen with architecture or a sense of place where you’re like, ‘I don’t know what it is about this, but it just feels good,’” Campana says. “That’s what you’re trying to achieve.”
The sense of place created by historic homes also extends into the community, helping to define it and evoke a sense of belonging among its residents. It’s a proven fact that people find historic buildings more attractive than new developments, Kellums says, even as more new builds pop up.
“If we continue to preserve the past for the future, we can share these things with our children and grandchildren so that they’re not living in a world of cookie-cutter houses,” she says. “They’re able to experience the sense of place that we have been able to experience because those who came before us didn’t tear things down.”
Incentives By City
While the state and national incentives for registering a historic property are the same across Northern Colorado, local municipalities offer additional financial perks. Here are a few:
Fort Collins
A project planning grant is available for most properties in the greater Old Town area for up to $2,000 per property per project. A zero-percent interest loan is also available for City Landmark owners for up to $7,500 in matching funds, and loans are paid back at or before the property transfer.
Loveland
A zero-interest loan program is available, providing residential building owners $5,000 that must be paid back within five years. Building fees, including building permits, can also be waived (taxes are not).
Greeley
A low-interest loan (half of prime) of up to $20,000 is offered with a five-year repayment period for exterior work. The building portion of permit fees can also be refunded.
Other cities and towns have their own preservation commissions and can provide specifics regarding financial incentives, eligibility and regulations for historically registered homes. Reach out to your local government for more information.
