Crystal Lake, IL Historic Renovation

The American Legion built this home in Crystal Lake, Illinois in 1929 as a way to raise money. At the time it was described as the Model Electric Home. It was the first all-electric home in the area with all the modern conveniences of the day. The house was open to the public for tours from Memorial Day through Labor Day and was eventually sold by a lottery.

The current owners bought the home with the intention of putting on an addition. Scholl Construction was hired to build a 2-car garage with a master suite above that included a bedroom, bathroom and library. The kitchen doubled in size with a modern double oven, built-in gas range, storage, pantry and granite countertops. As many of the original features were kept including rehanging the original chandelier, that was found stored in the basement, into the remodeled kitchen. The key to any addition and especially to a historic home is to seamlessly match the existing surfaces. Scholl Construction was able to match the original stucco finish between the old and the new structures. Read more about this property in the article below.

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We had a difficult time deciding whether or not to move forward with a home addition on our old, historic house. We loved its character but needed more space to make it functional for our family. We didn’t want to ruin any of its charm and worried that the addition would not be seamless.

From our first meeting, we felt like you understood what we wanted to do and how big of a deal this was for our family. We appreciated how detailed you were through every phase of the project both with our budget and ideas for the house. We always felt like we were on the same page with you and that our communication was constant. You and your sub-contractors were respectful of us, which is important with a three and five-year-old, and more significantly we were amazed with the results. Thank you for making our house feel so special and tackling our big project. We LOVE living here.