The Problem: Where to begin with this 1870s Italianate Victorian in San Jose’s College Park neighborhood? No foundation, only redwood sills on dirt. Pigeons in the attic. Plaster crumbling off the walls. Holes in the roof. Abandoned for five years. And, on a midnight tour by the new owner, a homeless man sleeping against the wall.

Neighbors were so thrilled to hear that Gail and James Beard planned to rescue the house,  they arranged a welcome party on the front patch of dirt with a banquet table of appetizers and wine.  The year was 1997 and the Beards had a toddler son and a baby daughter on the way. Without a foundation, the couple had to pay cash for the house. James’s boss at the time, Bobby Greenberg from Prism Technologies, believed in the Beards and believed in the house and gave the young couple a loan.

The Solution: When James first saw the house, it reminded him of his grandmother’s house in Kentucky. “I swear to God it has the same banister I slid down a thousand times as a kid,” he said.

It took two years of work _ about one year building the foundation _ before the Beard family could move in in 1999. They hired George Serpa, a general contractor and “a fantastic carpenter, which is just what this house needed,” James said. The siding was made of actual two-by-fours from old growth redwoods that termites hadn’t touched. The paint was stripped, the extensive woodwork repaired, the gutters and roof replaced and the disintegrating plaster pulled out and replaced with drywall. The Beards changed little of the original floor plan, only removing a wall between the kitchen and butler’s pantry and adding an upstairs bathroom. They built a period garage on the property and, without much of a backyard, added a wrought iron fence around the front for the kids to play. To this day, neighbors still thank them. And you can see why.