Trash-Strewn House Saved From Impending Demolition

A house full of trash and smelling of urine, where a postal worker once refused to deliver mail, where two city refuse workers fainted from an odor, and which health officials ordered condemned is now a neighborhood gem.

The 90-year-old home at 1111 W. Augusta was one of the few ever debated over by the City Council, which ordered the home demolished if health and safety violations were not fixed.

Neighbors complained for years about the stench from the home where Kathleen Henry lived with dogs, cats and rabbits. When inspectors came last year, a bathtub was filled with garbage and maggots spilled out of the refrigerator, which was crammed with rotting meat. A trailer out back was also a mess.

Henry tried to comply with city orders to clean up the home and hauled 18 tons of garbage from the property.

But she was unable to complete the cleanup and last November sold the house to Ken Pillers, a Spokane general contractor. He stripped the home down to its stone foundation and framework and rebuilt it.

Terry Clegg, director of the city code enforcement office, said the rehabilitation is nothing short of miraculous.

“Having gone through what it was then and what it is now, it’s just amazing,” he said.

Pillers and his brother Jim, who own Rather Ski Construction, said they took on the project as a way to get through the winter, but labored full time for almost six months. “I never calculated my hours, it scared me. I didn’t make any money,” Ken Pillers said.

The home has new studs, windows, doors, moulding, trim, siding and roof. Electrical and plumbing were redone and there are modern fixtures and ceiling fans. A garden window was installed over the kitchen sink.

The home is listed for sale at $89,000.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Mary Morton, 25, a photographer who lives across the street. “They took a house with a little iffy history and it will be someone’s beautiful home.”

Morton noted that since the rehab, others along the street have also begun fixing up their property.

An apartment building next door is being painted, broken concrete patched, lawns trimmed.

“It’s amazing ” said Morton. “All of a sudden people are out mowing their lawns and fixing up.”

“I think it would have been a shame to be torn down,” Pillers said of the house. “It needed some serious lovin’ is all it needed.”

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