Suzanne Garcia and her husband, Rob Brackett, had spent many an evening wandering through the Hanchett Park neighborhood, taking snapshots of the old Arts and Crafts homes with broad front porches and side-gables.

They were ready to buy, but none of their favorites were ever for sale. So they decided to do the next-best thing and build their own Craftsman home a neighborhood over, using their photos for inspiration. They had reached the permit stage when their realtors told them about a vintage Craftsman for sale in San Jose’s Hanchett Park.

“They had told us it’s one of the houses in the neighborhood that has river rock,” Suzanne said. “When we drove up, we were — ‘oh gosh, I have a picture of this house in my binder!’ Who can believe it, right?”

Once inside, they were thrilled to see that none of the impressive woodwork from the 1916 home had been painted.

“Now that I’ve lived in it for a while, you get used to it, but people just stop and say ‘Wow, wow, you just don’t see woodwork like that!’”

The floor plan was mostly original and the biggest changes were to areas they planned to update anyway — the kitchen and bathrooms. And after their purchase in 2007, a careful renovation began.

“We wanted a real master bath with the luxuries of today, but with that vintage quality. So we did handmade subway tile from Fireclay,” in San Jose, she said. “We found some accent tile in recycled green glass.”

Inspired by her collection of Bauer pottery, the couple painted the downstairs rooms in rich colors.

While they added a clawfoot tub in one bathroom, they added a luxurious steam shower and jacuzzi tub in the master bath.

“Some people will say we should have been more authentic,” she said, “Others will say what a great way to blend the old with the new.”

People who got a glimpse of the home during the Hanchett Park home tour in late May got to make up their own minds. And it’s hard to imagine anyone would disagree that the house is a lovely blend indeed.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 12:15 am and is filed under Architecture, Bedroom, Bungalow, Craftsman, Decorating, Dining Room, Historic, Home Decor, House Tours, Julia, Kitchen, Peek of the Week, Remodel, San Jose. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.