Couple restores one of Lansing's oldest homes. Now it's back on the market

LANSING - A 135-year-old Victorian home in Lansing's historic Cherry Hill neighborhood, rundown and in tax foreclosure five years ago, has been restored and is back on the market.  

The two-story, four-bedroom house at 523 Cherry St. was built in 1885, more than a decade before Lansing first experienced a housing boom in 1900.

Its neighborhood at the intersection of Cherry and Hillsdale streets is part of the city's original plat, and once extended south into the area where Interstate-496 is now, according to historical documents on the city's website.  

While a few hundred Lansing homes built before 1900 still stand, Historical Society of Greater Lansing President Bill Castanier said the Cherry Street house sits in a neighborhood known for its historic homes.

Lansing homes built in the 1880s that have been restored aren't common, he said, and there's more than a few in Cherry Hill.

"That whole neighborhood is a treasure," Castanier said. "It really is. It’s a tucked-away neighborhood and most of it is preserved."

Victoria and Jessy Vavra, the home's owners, said the neighborhood was a draw when they first looked at the property in 2016, but what sold them on the house was its historic details and features, including hand-carved designs on its winding oak staircase and the granite fireplace in the living room.

The home was worn, Jessy Vavra said, but solid.

"It looked like a house that just fell apart but the bones were great," he said.

The couple moved in and spent more than three years bringing it back to life. They listed it for sale two weeks ago for $224,900.

Love at first sight

The Vavras first spotted the Cherry Street house through an online listing.

"We usually like the countryside but when we saw that house we just fell in love with it," Jessy Vavra, 30, said.

It needed some attention, he said, but already had a solid foundation and level flooring. Previous owner, Joe Vitale, bought it at an Ingham County auction in 2015 for $16,000 after the home had been through foreclosure.

When the Vavra's bought the house it had a new furnace, air conditioning unit and the plumbing and electrical had been replaced.  

"It's rare to find a house that age with a very solid structure, and very little issues," Jessy Vavra said. "It looked worse than it was."

"When we first got to go inside you could tell it was once a gorgeous house, someone’s pride and joy," Victoria Vavra, said.

The restoration became a family project.

The couple raised their two daughters, Everly, 2 and Ava, 5, while they took on "weekend warrior" projects at the property, Victoria Vavra, 26, said.

The work included hand-sanding years worth of old paint off the home's oak staircase, trim work, crown molding and floors. 

Jessy Vavra replaced a missing door on a small storage space on the main staircase with a custom door he made out of an oak tree that stood in the yard of his childhood home. His four brothers spent hours running sandpaper over the home's wood features, and Victoria Vavra said she painted throughout the house.

The restoration was intimidating at first, she said, but they took their time working through it.

"It can be chaotic doing it with two kids on top of everything," Victoria Vavra said.

"It was done over the course of the time we lived there," Jessy Vavra said. "Sometimes it felt slow. Sometimes it felt fast."

Modern elements with historical features

Today the home is decorated with modern elements, like new appliances, carpeting upstairs and light fixtures throughout, but what sets it apart is its historic features, said the couple.

The solid oak staircase leading up to the home's second floor is a highlight, Jessy Vavra said.

"The staircase is beautiful," he said. "Someone carved the entire stair rail by hand."

The couple left exposed brick in a bedroom, and the original granite fireplace.

"We wanted to keep the historic feel to it," Jessy Vavra said. "We didn’t want to overdo it. We looked up old historic photos of the house and tried to match them."

Now the Vavras are moving out of Lansing for jobs. The home was listed for sale two weeks ago.

"We wanted to bring it back and that was our real motivation," Jessy Vavra said. "It was a shame to see it rotting away."

Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.