At 144 Cook Drive in Sioux City's Heights neighborhood, a stucco two-story home with black wooden shutters beckons visitors with wide, winding steps and luscious landscaping.
Inside, every room has been restored and redesigned over the last several years by the home's more recent owners, Ron and Wanda Wheeler and Debbie (Jacobson) Fedotenko.
The white home was built between 1936 and 1938. The original blueprints for the home were drawn up by K.E. Westerlind Architect and Engineer for W. Gordon Murray in July 1936, and the home first shows up in the Sioux City directory in 1938, according to Grace Linden at the Pearl Street Research Center.
W. Gordon Murray, the home's original owner, was vice president of the Woodbury County Building Company and manager of the Badgerow Building. He lived in the residence with his wife until he died circa 1945. Records show that his widow continued to live in the home with their son Don until she died circa 1986. The Murrays were avid gardeners who had trees, flowers and paths in the backyard.
People are also reading…
Don worked at First National Bank (now U.S. Bank) from 1957-1996, and lived in the house until he died at a hospital circa 1997. After his death, the home was sold to Ron and Wanda Wheeler in April 1998. Wanda worked at First National Bank with Don and was familiar with the house and its beautiful, private lot. Realtors Dean and Mary Chapman, who were neighbors to the Murrays for many years, handled the sale of the home to the Wheelers.
"We liked the house a lot," said Ron. "It was in a nice neighborhood, and there was lots of potential to add on. We wanted more space and more garage. Our intentions were to add on to this home, get it the way we wanted it and move in, then sell our acreage. We made an offer and they (Firstar Bank) took it."
As the new owners, the Wheelers added a 24-foot by 36-foot three-car garage (there was already a one-car garage underneath) and living quarters above the garage, including a bedroom, bathroom and laundry room.
"We had the home roughly a year and it was totally redone inside with the exception of the kitchen. The floors and woodwork were sanded. When we bought it, the home was in pretty bad shape. I do quite a bit of carpentry work myself because we have rental properties, so I did some of the work on our addition. We had the addition framed and roofed, then we put in new sheetrock and wiring, replaced a furnace in the house and added a new one," said Ron, who works part time at Porsch Quality Siding & Window.
Foulk Bros. Plumbing & Heating in Sioux City updated the plumbing in the old part of the house, then installed new pipes and set the fixtures in the new addition.
The Wheelers cleaned and polished the real marble shower and tub surround in the upstairs bath, and poured a driveway up to the new garage. Eventually, the driveway was widened by the new owners, the Fedotenkos.
With their original home still sitting on the market with no buyers, the Wheelers decided to put their new home on the market as well and wait to see which one would sell first. Their new house was sold to Debbie (Jacobson) Fedotenko in March 2000, and again, the Chapmans handled the sale.
With a vision for the remodel, Fedotenko, the wife of professional hockey player Ruslan Fedotenko, hired Mark Adam Construction and other contractors to make her ideas a reality. Mark Adam Construction's first project was to turn the screened-in porch into a family room with vaulted ceilings, and make it part of the home.
In addition to the family room, Mark Adam Construction added on the master suite, remodeled the upstairs bedroom and bathroom, opened up the stairway, added bookshelves to the study (the former master bedroom), and remodeled the main floor bathroom.
Steve Struthers of Modern Kitchen Design worked with the Fedotenkos to redesign the upstairs bath. The homeowners requested a large vanity with counter space, linen storage, a shower and a tile floor.
The solution was to eliminate the bathtub to create space for a 51-inch vanity and a 36-inch shower, and install a 12-inch deep linen cabinet to help with storage and obscure the toilet a bit.
In the upstairs bathroom, Struthers used cherry Crestwood Cabinetry with an executive door style and an auburn finish.
Modern Kitchen Design worked with the Fedotenkos to redesign the main floor bathroom as well. The homeowners' requirements included a large vanity with a furniture look, a matching mirror frame with fluted columns, and a new tile floor. In this bath, Struthers used cherry Crestwood Cabinetry with a presidential door style and a sable finish.
The new master suite, at the end of the addition to the west, was a larger project for Modern Kitchen Design. The Fedotenkos wanted a large, two-person tub, two walk-in closets, a large custom shower with a seat and two entries from the master bedroom. The solution was an alcove for the large 42-inch by 72-inch tub, which is surrounded by an ample deck with a step in front. The entry to the tub was anchored with two pillars to create the look Debbie desired.
"By centering the tub area on the west wall, we used each corner for matching walk-in closets," Struthers said.
They placed the 42-inch by 66-inch shower off the south closet and made room for a toilet compartment in the mirrored space on the north wall.
"The final piece of the solution was back-to-back vanities set as a peninsula separated by a two-fluted post with a mirror in between. This created ample counter space and a nice flow throughout the bathroom," he said.
In the master bathroom, Struthers used cherry Crestwood Cabinetry with a presidential door style and sable finish. The sable finish on cherry was carried into the master bedroom on the custom headboard and valance that Modern Kitchen Design created above the master bed. Debbie designed the headboard and valance after seeing one like it at a hotel.
The master suite has one of the three fireplaces in the house. The other two are in the study and the original living room.
In addition to the design work they did on the bathrooms, Modern Kitchen Design supplied granite countertops in a tropical brown with a demi edge to dress up the white cabinets in the Fedotenkos' kitchen.
Foulk Bros. Plumbing & Heating completed all the plumbing work for the remodeling projects/master suite addition, and Moore Brothers Painting did all the painting using Benjamin Moore products.
A highlight of the Fedotenkos' home is the backyard. It was cleared of trees during their ownership to make room for a swimming pool and a cabana to house kitchen and bath facilities. Mark Adam Construction poured the concrete around the swimming pool and built the cabana.
Purchased from Professional Pool and Spa, the rectangle-shaped, 20-foot by 40-foot pool has diving capabilities and an automatic pool cover with under tract mount. Professional Pool and Spa installs in-ground and above-ground pools and Marquis spas.
The vanity in the bath area of the cabana was taken from the main floor bathroom in the house, repainted to coordinate with the cabana's walls, and covered with a black countertop.
This four-bedroom, three-bathroom home is currently for sale and is priced at $389,000.
