New owners restoring historic Elgin home to its former glory

James Halik and Jim Armstrong broke their rule against leaving home on Christmas Day only once — four years ago when Halik insisted they go see the downtrodden neoclassical house in Elgin they eventually purchased.

Of course, they wore their pajamas when Halik, who had a real estate license, got them into the house, because that's a Christmas rule, too: They stay in pajamas all day. Friends and relatives are welcome to visit — if they wear pajamas.

The desire to take it easy on Christmas Day is understandable when you hear the holiday regime for Halik, Armstrong, and their 13-year-old daughter, Olivia.

“We invite family and friends on Christmas Eve,” said Armstrong. “We have a huge meal. James' aunt brings a ham, and James makes sweet potatoes and his stuffing for the turkey, all the dishes you have at Thanksgiving.

“We watch movies — ‘Polar Express,' ‘A Christmas Story' and ‘Christmas Vacation' — and read ‘The Night Before Christmas.'”

The festivities culminate in midnight Mass, and this all follows a cookie-decorating party that attracted 22 youngsters and their adults earlier in December.

“Christmas is spending time with the people you love,” said Halik, whose idea of perfect presents are “time and something from the heart.”

Olivia has inherited her fathers' love for Christmas, appreciating “spending time with family and doing our traditions,” although Armstrong teases that the teen's new tradition is “sleeping in.”

And then there's the decorating.

When guests approach the house, it's imposing, of course, with the four massive two-story pillars and exterior holiday decorations that include bands of white lights.

Some of the home's 18 Christmas trees also glow through the front windows, especially the one in the huge central entry, visible through the glass door.

Ornaments from Marshall Field's (don't say Macy's) and other images of Chicago decorate the tree in the middle of the hall. Some of the ornaments are 80-year-old family heirlooms. Visitors see Santa bears, the signature clocks and even gift cards from the iconic department store. Set around the room are ceramic buildings such as Marshall Field's candy shop, not to mention Frango candy boxes.

Halik was 3 when his great-grandmother took him on his first seasonal trip to the Walnut Room on State Street. A train from his childhood circles the base of the tree.

When August and Martha Scheele built the home in 1908, they designed this area to accommodate the mahogany Seth Thomas case or grandfather clock, which is actually built into the wall. Halik's uncle is working to improve its time keeping.

Scheele owned a grocery store in downtown Elgin and at one time had 16 wagons to deliver groceries to customers, including the first refrigerated delivery vehicle in the area.

Halik and Armstrong mourn the fact that the mahogany trim in the home's formal areas is covered with paint, now white. In the hall the doorways are all arched, and those into the pub and the family room include small insets of paneling in the woodwork. Halik and Armstrong added all the French doors in the home.

Bay windows and stained and leaded glass windows are among other architectural highlights in the home. These include two long, narrow leaded panels with opalescent glass reminiscent of Louis Sullivan's designs flanking the front door. When the couple bought the house, these windows were visible from the front of the house but wallpaper covered them on the hall side.

Visitors notice the gold ceiling in the hall, just a taste of what's to come because Havlik will not abide white ceilings. The wallpaper is red and gold from the 1930s, and Armstrong, who is tired of removing wallpaper, rates it good enough to stay.

“There's nothing wrong with it, and we have too many other projects to do,” he said. The first floor is finished and was open on a recent Northeast Neighborhood Association Christmas tour. But Halik and Armstrong have work to do on two more floors, not to mention the second-floor parade porch that they plan to rebuild on the home's front.

The room that is now the pub had hand-painted Art Deco wallpaper from the 1930s — peacocks and beautiful flowers — that was ruined when yellow vinyl was glued over it in the 1970s. But Armstrong rebuilt the room with an oak bar and paneling on the walls. This front room was originally the dining room, and the old breakfront is the wet bar, with lighting below it and to highlight bottles above.

The room is right by the kitchen, so the family hangs out here a lot as well as using it for entertaining. But Halik warns Olivia that if she tells anyone she does her homework at a bar she should make it clear it's in their home and not down on the corner.

Waterford crystal snowflakes and icicles cover the tree in this room, and Halik is the only one with nerve to touch or move them. The poinsettias are dark burgundy and chocolate, and the nativity scene in this room is set in a small grotto.

On the other side of the hall the green room dubbed the family room is really Halik's retreat. The Christmas tree with green lights features ornaments from Christopher Radko. Above the cut limestone fireplace that the current owners had built is a portrait of a 7-year-old Olivia sitting on Halik's knee, the year he got special permission from Santa to dress as a helper. And the bookcases on either side are painted jet black from Behr.

Other treasures in this room include prints of Elgin by Al Kocsis. Halik paid $5 for four of them at a house sale, but won't say how much the gold-carved frames cost.

A cuckoo clock that Armstrong's grandfather got in Europe during World War II hangs in the dining room, and it inspired one of the ornaments on the tree.

When Halik and Armstrong bought the house, pipes had broken, and the kitchen and a bathroom were the worst rooms.

The kitchen's major makeover spared a wall of cabinets and the stainless steel hood, which had been black until Halik and Armstrong's grandmothers took it to the basement and donated four days of elbow grease to make it look like new.

The new floor is bamboo, the Wolf range has a potfiller over it, even though the new sink enjoys one faucet that produces boiling water.

Armstrong put a khaki-colored glass tile back splash with bands of gray, brown and peach mosaics on the red walls in the room.

Armstrong, a health care recruiter, said he loved the home's architectural style and potential.

“We wanted to bring back the charm and make it the showplace it was 30 years ago,” he said, adding that the owners then had parties for the Elgin Symphony where famous pianists played the piano set exactly where one is now in the green room.

And Halik, an efficiency expert and project planner, agreed.

“The house has great bones,” he said. “I knew if we bought it we could save it for the next generation. It's a huge double lot, and we love the neighborhood.”