Lifestyle

Arlington Heights houses combine history with updates

Posted June 04, 2010 11:00 pm

By Deborah Donovan

The bungalow that Alice and John Blomquist love was built in 1925. Bill Zars | Staff Photographer

The Blomquists' vintage bungalow is more livable thanks to a remodeled and enlarged kitchen. And a block away the Perrons' new house shows a contemporary, open floor plan with a great room and oversized dining room.

But both Alice Blomquist and Nicole Perron think the most important thing about their Arlington Heights homes is having space to entertain their grandchildren and the parents and aunts and uncles of the little ones, of course. The Blomquists have five adult children and eight grandchildren. Nicole and Charles Perron enjoy four daughters and seven grandchildren.

Both houses will be among six the Arlington Heights Historical Society will open for a tour June 13.

Beautiful bungalow

Visitors to the Bloomquists' corner home immediately notice the gardens - and that starts Alice's stories about her neighborhood.

"Almost everything planted here came from a neighbor - most from the green house or the yellow house," Alice said with a wave at the nearby homes. Displays in the tidy yard includes roses, hydrangeas, native geraniums, periwinkle and pachysandra.

Then Alice, who works for Roosevelt University as transfer coordinator, tells a tale to demonstrate why she and her husband, John, have never moved from the house they purchased in 1978.

When she arrived home from work one snowy day years ago, her daughter was playing outside with her dog, and a neighbor girl the same age was with her own dog.

"I thought it's so nice they're such good friends. Then I went inside, and my house smelled so good. Mary Stellberg was there and said, 'I made a batch of cookies and my oven went out.' "

Alice noticed a little pink jacket and discovered someone else was visiting - a child of yet another family had dropped in to watch television because their cable had failed.

"I thought, 'Isn't it so nice that we all have each other's key and are such good friends.' There's not one person in this neighborhood that my kids could not have knocked on their door and said 'Can you help me?' if they needed a ride or if something was wrong."

Thanks to the Blomquists' 2008 remodeling, a 3-foot addition runs along the rear of the house, enlarging the kitchen and eating area with a cathedral ceiling transformed from an unheated sunroom and the laundry room.

Alice can show off her colorful collection of pitchers above the cherry cabinets. Other features in the kitchen are granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.

While there are still several openings and doorways into the kitchen, Alice finds it much more workable than when seven doors converged on the space. For example, the remodeled powder room is now reached only through the laundry room, rather than having two doors.

Classic oak built-ins, including square pillars, a bookcase and a desk, separate the living and dining rooms. The woodwork had never been painted, but Alice stripped the alligatored finish.

Like the icebox in the living room, many of the antiques in the Blomquist home came from family members, but the 100-year-old Victorian sofa was found street side 20 years ago and reupholstered.

"I remember thinking, 'I can't believe people are throwing that out,'" she said.

The second floor had a second kitchen, which John Bloomquist, assistant principal at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, removed to create one of the home's four bedrooms.

The master bedroom is painted a mossy green, one of the Arts & Crafts colors of green and gold that predominate in the house.

With Alice's love for the neighborhood, it's not a surprise that the front porch is her favorite part of the house.

"The best thing about this house is the neighbors," she said. "When new neighbors come in, they are just as warm and welcoming."

Contemporary tudor

Nicole and Charles Perron have lived four years in their two-story home that still has remnants - two walls and the basement - from the ranch house that stood on the site.

They had lived in another Arlington Heights home for 20 years, but the kitchen felt small, and they were thinking about adding on when this Tudor style home turned up while one of their daughters and her husband were house shopping.

Nicole loves the oversized front doors that together form a Gothic arch. They lead into the impressive entry hall with a barrel ceiling enhanced by cove lighting.

While much of the furniture in the home - including the small sofa here - came from the Perrons' former house, they resorted to eBay to purchase some pieces, including the two buffets in this area.

The kitchen with alder cabinets, a white island and Viking range is separated from the great room by a two-level eating counter. The adjacent butler's pantry includes a fireplace that Nicole thinks was meant as a pizza oven.

The fireplace also opens into the dining room, where Charles Perron redid the surround, changing it to travertine marble and adding a classic white mantel.

The home's biggest surprise is the murals around the dining room painted by Mark Abbate, art teacher at St. Joseph's school in Libertyville where Nicole teaches. A bridge reminiscent of Monet's garden shares a long wall with a gazebo, and Nicole likes the winding road with the colorful trees that bring fall to the fireplace wall.

Nicole Perron liked most of the colors in the house and only repainted a few. That includes a bedroom that is now pale lavender. It hosts a bedroom set featuring cannonball bed of ribbon mahogany that Nicole stripped herself. Her grandparents bought the pieces in the 1950s when friends retired and left the Midwest for California.

A friend helped Nicole refashion the window treatments from her previous home. Don't miss the large window in the oversized master bath where a shower curtain gracefully swags across the top. This window helps three skylights splash light across the floor of travertine marble.

Other houses on the tour include two updated 1960s colonials.

The icebox in Alice and John Blomquist's living room was handed down through the family, and the sofa was found sitting on a curb. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

The living and dining rooms show vintage oak woodwork in the home of Alice and John Blomquist. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

It's an old house, but the new, enlarged kitchen makes the Blomquist home much more livable. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

The great room shows the contemporary floor plan in the new home of Nicole and Charles Perron. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

Only an eating counter separates the kitchen from the great room in Nicole and Charles Perron's home, which will be on the house walk sponsored by the Arlington Heights Historical Society. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

Visitors will notice Alice and John Blomquist's gardens first. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

The home of Nicole and Charles Perron will be open for the June 13 house walk in Arlington Heights. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

While Nicole did not repaint most of the first-floor rooms, she did have a friend paint murals in the dining room. Heights house walk. Mark Black | Staff Photographer

If you go What: Arlington Heights House Walk & Tea, sponsored by Arlington Heights Historical Society When: Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 13 Where: Heritage Gallery, Historical Society Museum grounds, 112 W. Fremont St., Arlington Heights Tickets: $35; $30 for society members; available at museum office or Heritage Gallery on museum grounds Tea & chocolate dipping: Available for tickets purchased by June 9 Call: (847) 255-1225 or visit <a href="http://ahmuseum.org" target="new">ahmuseum.org</a>