A major makeover

Diana Dunaway and Gary Arrington are the first to admit their house is a work in progress. Yet, changes they've made to their 52-year-old beachfront home have been dramatic.

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For one, there are no more plastic pink flamingoes flapping on the lawn.

When they first visited the home in 1999, it had been on the market for more than a year. It was a booming market when anything listed as waterfront was quickly snapped up. The small, four-bedroom split foyer home, built in 1956, showed its age despite being sheathed in vinyl siding. The cheap woodwork inside was scarred by a tenant's dog, closet doors wouldn't open, flooring and doors were low quality. Oh, and there were those pink flamingoes planted near the front door.

The house screamed 'tear-down!'

The couple, now in their 60s, had lived in an English basement apartment with its own backyard in an old town house in Georgetown. There, they had a nodding acquaintance with neighbors like journalist Bob Woodward and the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Ms. Dunaway is a program manager for the IRS and Mr. Arrington is an IRS systems tester. When Ms. Dunaway's office relocated to New Carrollton, the two began considering the commute from a different direction.

Ms. Dunaway did some online research before visiting the house at the end of Latrobe Drive in Cape St. Claire. The two wanted water access and a garage. They were tired of on-street parking in Georgetown.

Gazing around the spacious yet cozy home, she said, 'This place should have been torn down. Because it was on the water, it would be difficult to get permits to build a new structure. All the other houses undergoing renovations in the area had things worth saving; this one didn't. Even the water ran red when I turned the taps on. The aquifer here has a lot of iron and chemicals in it. But this is a solid house.' In the 1980s, Ms. Dunaway, the former director of Medicaid in Texas, made — and lost — a fortune in the Austin, Texas, real estate market. She would buy a property, fix it up and flip it. She did well until the market suddenly collapsed. Now, she and her husband were eyeballing a building with so little potential, the property was sold to them for the value of the 9,540-square-foot lot. But the cottage had one thing that made them swoon: a view.

From the back, their vista includes the Magothy River, the bay, Deep Creek, Persimmon Point, Gibson Island and a little bit of Lake Claire. They overlook the Cape St. Claire crabbing pier, and the Fairwinds Marina is a few yards away. They often watch local Olympic hopeful Farrah Hall perfecting her windsurfing skills out on the river.

Though Mr. Arrington is vice commodore of the Cape St. Claire Yacht Club, the couple doesn't own a boat. 'I didn't want two money pits at the same time,' Ms. Dunaway laughed.

The couple immediately redid the waterside or back of the home, using preliminary designs Ms. Dunaway created.

From the inside, they could not see the water unless they stood on their toes and pressed up against the leaky, hand-cranked jalousie windows. An old sunroom that had been added to the back of the house and the whole rear of the home were taken off and replaced with an extension on the living room and a broad cedar deck.

The couple took great pains to not disturb the roots of the healthy 200-year-old oak tree growing just behind the house. It factored into all their building plans. They want it to shade their home for another 100 years.

The couple used the increase in the home's value to refinance the mortgage, freeing up money for more renovations.

On the front of the house, a split level 10-by-10-foot box entry had been tacked on by a previous owner. It was removed and the split stairway to the lower level was moved to the side of the house. Since a well sits in the front yard, they were not able to bump the house out extensively in front, nor connect the garage to the house. A front porch with an overhang was added, raising the roofline pitch on the front half of the house.

The two-car garage was stripped down to its frame and received a new roof, cedar siding, doors and windows. The vinyl siding on the house came off, revealing asbestos underneath. The house was reinsulated and cedar siding was nailed in place and it too received new, solid doors and windows.

To passers-by, it was a new house.

Yet it's inside where the couple's redo went into overdrive.

Walls were removed to create a more open space in the kitchen and living room areas. Other walls were stripped down to the studs and new sheetrock put up. All the flooring — including dried out parquet tiles and decaying carpets — was ripped out. Most of the floors are now solid hardwood. A collection of beautiful hand-knotted rugs from the Middle East and Asia enhance the deep burnish of the wood.

Down in the basement, French drains, a whole house generator (the Broadneck area is plagued by frequent blackouts during storms) and a complex-looking water treatment system were installed. The tap water now runs crystal clear.

Did I mention Ms. Dunaway has the DNA of a tenacious bargain-hunter? This is when those genes kicked in. She became a habitué of builders' wholesale auctions, monthly auctions by Southern Sales Services, held in Jessup, and the Renovation Station in Pasadena, part of the charity Arundel Habitat for Humanity.

Early on, she scooped up $6,000 worth of Anderson windows for only $675. She also got a deal on travertine stone tile, paying the same price as she would have for common linoleum. The tiles frame the kitchen area.

And those handsome, solid cherry cabinets that gleam above the granite countertops in her kitchen? 'I got them, appliances and Corian countertops for less than $5,000. They had been used in a model home and were torn out. I've been told I got a $48,000 kitchen at a tenth of the cost,' she said, just a little gleefully. The Corian counters are still stored in her basement, waiting for the eventual redo downstairs.

She scoped out similar bargains for the Thermador propane stove top, the double convection ovens and the granite countertops. More bargains followed throughout the house. Old molding around doors and windows was replaced with real wood that was hand-stained. Solid doors were found for $69 apiece.

The huge, new master bath shower, dubbed 'the party room' by her husband, is sheathed in sparkling 'emerald pearl' black granite — another bargain. Ms. Dunaway found a set of fancy fixtures for $150. When she needed a second set, it cost her $1,000 at Home Depot.

'If we hadn't gotten things at the auctions, we would not have been able to afford this fancy a place,' Ms. Dunaway noted.

The couple has myriad interests and hobbies, and it shows in how they've decorated the home. Mr. Arrington is a devoted amateur landscape photographer. Some of his framed photos — a few taken from the deck — are framed and hung in the home. Ms. Dunaway is a gifted quilter and is treasurer of the Annapolis Quilt Guild. She's also a stained-glass artist, jewelry-maker and painter, and has sold her works in galleries and at art shows. Her impressive quilts accent each bed in the home, and her other artwork adorns the walls.

On their travels, Mr. Arrington and Ms. Dunaway collect small figurines, tribal art, indigenous pottery and sculpture. Even Beanie Babies. The two display their findings atop an antique player piano, above the fridge in the kitchen, on furniture and in antique printers trays mounted on the walls. 'They're my trash and treasures,' Ms. Dunaway joked.

The property needs some landscaping, and the lower level still awaits its face-lift. The Corian countertop, a claw-foot tub, a whirlpool bath and other auction bargains they've stashed in the basement give a clue to what lies ahead.

'We love how this is turning out,' Ms. Dunaway said. 'From the deck and the living room, you can sit and watch the light and colors change on the water. You can watch big ships passing by on the Chesapeake.'

'This house is a little jewel,' she said. 'Not a McMansion!'