It’s Good to Be Green: This Restored Munger Place Craftsman is a Preservationist’s Dream

You know what makes a good stocking stuffer? A fully restored Craftsman!

The perfect one would be this gorgeous-in-green Munger Place Craftsman. I could tell it was a labor of love the moment I saw the photos. This is one of those rare homes that has been restored and updated with a reverence for its history you don’t often find.

Thankfully, Zak and Bethany Mailey understand the significance of preservation and did a beautiful job bringing this 1913 home back to its original glory … and then some!

Zak Mailey comes by his love of historic houses naturally. He grew up in Lakewood and on Swiss Avenue, watching his mom restore and renovate family homes and went with her on countless treasure hunts to estate sales and antique stores.

“In high school, we moved to Swiss Avenue, and I’d watch my mom work on our home. I just developed a passion for old houses,” Zak said. “I got a degree in construction science and started in commercial construction right out of college.”

After a few years in the commercial side of the industry and a quick dip into computer programming, he determined that the residential side of real estate was the perfect fit.

“Flipping fit the bill for me,” Zak said. “Taking a house that has been neglected for the most part and bringing it back is fulfilling.”

Zak went to work with Davenport Investment Group and has never looked back.

His wife, Bethany, had zero knowledge of historic homes until she married Zak, but she got on board quickly.

“I was in graduate school in 2015 when one day he said, hey, let’s restore a historic home in Dallas!” Bethany said. That’s easier said than done, so when they found land in Rockwall, they thought, why not just build a home that looks old?

“We have been working on it for the past five years, and I fell in love with the whole process,” Bethany said. “I love treasure hunting for the right hardware, light fixtures, and windows. No one can tell that our home is not a historical one, and everyone thinks it was built in 1920.” 

(Stay tuned for that story in the future!)

While the couple was busy creating their new old house, Zak found this Munger Place Craftsman. His company has a connection with a wholesale realty company that sends out email blasts to investors. When the email on this house hit his inbox, he called Bethany and their business partner in Zak’s House, LLC, Jeff Kremer, saw it that same day and bought it. 

“It made sense as the bones of the home were great,” Zak said. “There was only one owner since 1940, and nothing terrible had been done to the house. It just had deferred maintenance issues and it needed updating.”

There were some big wins, like when they peeled up the second-floor linoleum to discover beautiful hardwood pine floors underneath. And there were challenges, of course. The first-floor hardwoods had to be refinished twice because the quality was not up to their standards. Replacing the aluminum dormers with those that would pass muster with the city was another challenge.

“One of the most fun parts of this process was restoring the hardware,” Bethany said. “Zak is so good at the big picture, and I’m detail-oriented. We wanted period-accurate hardware, so we ended up taking off all of the hardware, boiling it to get the paint off, and refinishing it to reinstall. We only had to find a few pieces, but some of them took six months to locate. The only reproduction item we had to use was the openers for the transom windows. Every time we would locate an original, there was a missing piece. I wanted every window in the house to be operable.”

The Mailey’s gained quite the reputation at Orr Reed Architectural Salvage.

“We always take a scale to weigh the window sash weights,” Bethany said. “We learned that if you don’t have the right weight, a window won’t open and close properly. We put in double casement windows in the kitchen and I felt like I discovered the best treasure when I found those. They make the kitchen, in my opinion. The windows and the transoms are what I’m most proud of, and the light fixtures. We did a lot of searching for period-accurate fixtures and lots of salvage shopping!” 

In addition to Orr Reed, the couple resourced items for their Munger Place Craftsman from the Old Home Supply in Fort Worth, Discount Home Warehouse, Old Texas Wood, eBay, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, and connections in Philadelphia.

The result is an absolutely picture-perfect, light-filled, 3,077-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home with landmark status. Of course, all the things that are so important that you don’t see — plumbing, electrical, and HVA — were replaced.

One of the most captivating things about this Munger Place Craftsman is the exterior color.

“When we were doing the kitchen, we wanted to get a Craftsman-style tile,” Bethany said. “I found an Etsy site with handmade tile, and the woman mixed her own colors. There was a spring green that was beautiful and seemed period-appropriate. We ordered that and were so taken with the color we thought, why not try it on the exterior? We took a piece of tile to Sherwin Williams, tried it out on the garage, and fell in love with it!”

Although it will be hard to turn over their first restoration to a buyer, the Mailey’s are sure someone will share their love of historic homes and live happily ever after here.

“We love resurrecting something beautiful and bringing it back to a new life,” Bethany said. “We want people to have a great home that preserves history.”

Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s Elizabeth Mast has 4709 Tremont Street listed for $950,000.