Halfway through a long career as an emergency room nurse, Irene Ewing found a home to call her own. Built in the 1920s, the 1,100-square-foot cottage in the Samarkand neighborhood exuded plenty of old-fashioned charm. But like any house that’s been up and running for close to a century, a bit of triage was in order.
Improving the kitchen became priority number one, Ewing remembers, and then the rest of the house would fall in line, including the floors, doors, fireplace, and a fresh coat of paint. Initially, she planned to tackle that long to-do list one project at a time. But she soon realized it would likely drag on, she said. “I said to myself, ‘I can’t do it piecemeal. I’m going to take out some equity and just get it done!’”
At the time, Ewing remembers seeing a fair amount of Giffin & Crane advertisements in newspapers and magazines. “I’m detail oriented, and I was drawn to the attention to detail I saw in the pictures of these huge estates they built,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t think Giffin & Crane would want to work on my little casita. But I called them anyway.”
