Reviving a Tudor, their way

EVANSTON, Ill. - An 1890s Tudor mansion with an interior decorator for an owner isn't the first place you'd picture a Ms. Pac-Man arcade game blinking in the living room and kids whizzing through the oak-paneled foyer on skateboards.

"We have a very casual lifestyle, and we have a lot of kids here constantly," Jodi Morton said. "It's organized chaos, and I kind of like it that way."

To just about anyone, the Space Invaders arcade game (next to Ms. Pac-Man) and the drum kit (next to the grand piano) would be an improvement over what preceded them: Pigeons roosting in the fireplace and mice scampering throughout the dark interior.

"The house was in very sad disrepair when we bought it," Morton said. "There were no electrical outlets and the entire first floor was covered by pea-green shag carpeting. Millions of animals were residing in the house because it had been vacant for over a year and a half. It would have been a tear-down if it wasn't in a historic preservation district."

Her husband, David Morton, co-owner of DMK Restaurants, saw past the water damage on the first floor and the fire damage on the second, where the four bedrooms had been fitted with locks for boarders at some point.

He admired the lead glass windows, the open vistas from dining room to foyer to living room, and the second-floor library with beamed ceiling, a hallmark of architect Ernest Mayo, who designed many homes in Evanston, Ill., north of Chicago.

For years, the Mortons had been designing their own restaurant interiors and buying and fixing up homes, a hobby that launched their business, 2to5design.

This edifice presented unprecedented challenges.

They bought it anyway.

Selling their north suburban Northfield home, they moved into an Evanston hotel with their three children, ages 9 months to 5 years. They spent the next six months there while crews stripped out asbestos, brought the wiring up to code, laid new wood floors and made the 8,000-square-foot house partially habitable.

See the original post:
Reviving a Tudor, their way