Second Stripe works to restore potential to vintage homes

Mary Haugh loves vintage homes, with a connoisseur's appreciation for fine craftsmanship, quality materials and classic design. She's proud of her carefully restored, early 20th century home in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Haugh has turned that love into a modestly successful second career with her two-year old company The Second Stripe, restoring century-old homes while preserving the character of neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul. It's a market with great potential; more than half of the homes in the two cities are 100 years old.

Haugh took on her first such project several years ago, starting with her home on Longfellow Avenue in Minneapolis, which had been damaged by a fire, followed by a sewer pipe collapse.

After the fire, because the post-fire remediation “was taking way too long to get done,” Haug decided she could do the renovation better and in a more timely fashion. Haugh, who grew up in the neighborhood and raised a family there, had been concerned about the number of older homes being torn down and replaced by “big suburban-style boxes, taking away a lot of the character” in her Longfellow neighborhood.

She also had years of experience doing branding and marketing, working with ad agency clients like Marvin Windows, Lowe's, and various building craftspeople.

After restoring her own family home, she was able to revitalize several other older homes for friends and family. “I decided ‘I can do this,’” she said.

The isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic also heightened her appreciation of neighborhood bonding. Later that year, the nearby George Floyd protests brought clouds of tear gas to the neighborhood, and more negativity. “I really needed to feel a part of something positive.”

With four projects under her belt, she started the company and has done two more, learning from mentors Realtors and renovation contractors along the way.

“We have identified a niche between traditional flippers and somebody who does tear downs and new building,” she said.

“A new build takes about a year and is much more expensive. Flippers are trying to do things as fast as possible; ‘how quickly can we turn this over?’” Her first project took 10 months; projects with more extensive upgrades such as replacing HVAC or wiring take longer.

For efficiency, some rebuilders use less expensive “builder grade” materials like those generally used in modern homes. “We're trying to find efficiencies too, but what we are hearing is that there is a place for people willing to spend on a house that has good solid quality materials that they haven't seen at [our] price point” which costs much less than new construction.

“We do some of the same types of finishes you get in custom builds. But people are recognizing there is value in the authenticity of 100-year-old oak floors.” She recalls one client's delighted comment, “the floor still creaks.”

Haugh and her company face the same challenges that have bedeviled most contractors: high interest rates, material cost inflation, delays in obtaining materials, and finding qualified workers in a tight labor market.

Interest rates have “driven a lot of people out of doing this work,” she noted. She's also grown accustomed to ordering materials and components up to six months in advance. “It's a lot like managing an ad campaign; set a launch date and then work backwards from that.”

It's also important to “know the neighborhood,” Haugh said. In the Macalester-Groveland and Longfellow neighborhoods there is an abundance of old houses, as in many city neighborhoods. “I chose those neighborhoods because I really know them well. I don't think I could go into northeast Minneapolis or the West Side [St. Paul] because I don't know the vibe. I target neighborhoods where I understand the lifestyle.”

“One of our ongoing missions is to demonstrate the value that a rebuilt house has to the buyer, so the banks and appraisers responsible for financing understand that this work is worth it.” Another benefit: Some insurance companies offer significant discounts on homes in which the outdated wiring is replaced by modern technology; State Farm gave one of Haugh's clients a 25% discount.

Haugh and her crew are frequent customers at local architectural salvage retailers who can provide the right antique doors, windows, floor materials, siding, door knobs and other fixtures. “It's like treasure-hunting.” Sometimes she has to use new materials to replace damaged components, mixing and matching, but “once it's all sanded, looks great.”

Haugh said she's currently looking for her next project, with “my eye on a couple homes in Mac-Groveland.” She wants to keep the company small and move forward at a measured pace. “I don't want to get bigger than four to six homes a year. Our goal is to make a fair, reasonable margin on each one, enough to live on. And we want to make affordable homes for people.”

Erin Hanafin Berg of Rethos a local nonprofit that promotes historic restoration praised the work Haugh is doing and said one benefit of her efforts has been “under-recognized.”

“St. Paul has long promoted itself as a sustainable city but has not done much to curtail the tendency to tear homes down instead of redeveloping them. Mary has found a way to keep those buildings in use, keep their existing character, and make them relevant for current owners,” said Hanafin Berg, who is deputy director and policy director of Rethos. “She is focused on what was a very big period of growth in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Those old buildings still have plenty of life left in them.”

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