Your beautiful home YOUR BEAUTIFUL HOME
In 1977 Lory Miller, then single, drove by a turn-of-the-century home perched on top of the North Monroe Street hill and fell in love with it.
She wrote the address down and tucked it away along with other “someday” dreams.
Eleven years, one husband and two kids later, Miller purchased the home. The Millers are only the fourth family to live in the house since its construction in 1905.
For 18 years Miller has been lovingly restoring it to its original charm.
She’s done the bulk of the work herself. Carpentry, drywall, painting, even electrical – if she didn’t know how, she taught herself. With every improvement Miller has tried to retain the architectural integrity of the house.
A sweeping view of Spokane can be seen from the spacious front porch and through the leaded-glass bay windows in the living room. Miller painted the room in warm beige tones and trimmed it with white crown molding.
Original ceramic tiles, painted to resemble red bricks, surround a cast-iron fireplace insert circa 1889. A Belgian tapestry she inherited from her father hangs above the mantel.
Miller refinished the oak hardwood floors to their original luster and scattered jewel-toned oriental rugs throughout.
One of her favorite discoveries is a solid fir pocket door between the living room and dining room. It had been boarded up years earlier when carpet was laid.
Miller tore out the boards and freed the door. Now it can be closed to create a more formal dining room.
New wallpaper with a vintage look surrounds the built-in hutch in the dining room.
A unique butler’s door swings between the dining room and kitchen. The stained-glass and wood door originally hung in a church in England in 1865. Miller bought it from a man on the South Hill.
When she redid the kitchen in 1996, she started by tearing out the ceiling. In the process she discovered an additional set of cupboards. She covered the new ceiling with paintable wallpaper and then added a coat of high-gloss hunter green paint.
It gives the look of the tin ceilings that were popular when the home was built. Two chain lights from the old Post Street Theater circa 1920 add warmth and ambience.
Restoring the master bath took a lot of time. Miller did all the work herself, including refinishing a claw-foot tub. A dresser she bought at a Corbin Park garage sale now holds the vanity sink.
The 1910-era metal curtain rods that swing out from the window came from her parents’ homestead farm.
“I love being able to get this home back to the era in which it was built,” Miller said. “A lot of its charm had been covered, and it’s fun to restore it.”