Bev Carr and Larry Loeser renovated a charming 1930s Craftsman-style bungalow, blending family history with modern comfort in the Trinity Park neighborhood
By Anna-Rhesa Versola | Photography by John Michael Simpson
Bev Carr opens her front door, steps inside, and a warm, familiar feeling returns – home.
“From the very first night we spent here, the space felt like home,” the retired marketing consultant says. “Most days, when I wake up, my first thought is how much I love the house, and how cozy and comfortable it feels. Almost everything in the house has meaningful memories, stories about our lives together and nostalgia.”
Bev and her husband, Larry Loeser, president of Piedmont Business Advisors and former President and CEO of Harrington Bank in Chapel Hill, lived in Chapel Hill for 24 years. Their two sons, now grown, settled in Durham with their young families. Bev and Larry have four grandchildren, ages 1, 2, 3, and 4. They found themselves driving over sometimes twice a day to help out with the little ones. So, the couple began searching for an older home with a first floor primary bedroom in the Trinity Park neighborhood to be even closer to their family. They found a gem – a 2,800-square-foot Craftsman-style bungalow built in 1930.
“After we purchased it, we didn’t know what to do with the house and how we could achieve our goals for a livable space,” Bev says. Larry spoke with his sister, Debbie Kulig, who lives in Miami, Florida, and is married to an accomplished architect, Doug Kulig. “Debbie told us to send her the floor plan,” Bev says. “The next day, Doug sent us a drawing of a new floor plan, which we loved right away. The day after that, he sent us construction plans that showed which walls had to come down and the new walls to build. We were all set!”
Larry and Bev selected Miles Honeycutt of Longleaf Building and Renovation, which prides itself on using only local subcontractors and artisans. Design work began in November 2022, and renovations got under way in January 2023. Bev and Larry moved in six months later. “We were very happy with Miles and the wonderful job that he finished on time for us,” Bev says.
Curb Appeal
Oak trees line the street and shade the sidewalk that curves up to the brick steps painted white. Lush garden beds with evergreen hellebores and pink roses complement the pastel exterior. A porch swing beckons on the right, and an outdoor seating area is ready on the left. A stained glass pane decorates the center of a blue front door, and a heart-shaped chalkboard bears a welcome message for expected visitors.
Larry says the location is perfect for its walkability and its strong connection to his own personal history. His mother was born and raised in Trinity Park, and she attended the nearby Watts Elementary School. Her childhood home stood on the site that Trinity Park now occupies, Larry says.
“We enjoy being able to take walks around our neighborhood and walk to the Durham Farmers Market every Saturday morning,” Larry says. He and Bev regularly tread the gravel track on Duke University’s East Campus, where Larry lived during his undergraduate years there. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Duke before pursuing a master’s in finance and accounting from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
The couple left the Chicago area for North Carolina in 1999 and raised their sons, Mike Loeser and Charles Loeser, in Chapel Hill. Mike recently moved from Durham to Houston, Texas, with his wife, Sarah Skrobialowski, and their two children, Everett Loeser, 5, and Eleanor Loeser, 2 ½. Charles still lives just three blocks away in Trinity Park with his wife, Lauren Shor, and their kids, Teddy Loeser, 3 ½, and Maggie Loeser, 1 ½.
Elements of Surprise
Renovating an older home can sometimes reveal unexpected issues and unique details, like the knob and tube wiring – which was commonly used in homebuilding in the United States from the 1880s through the 1940s – that the pair discovered.
“We had to replace all of the electrical wiring in the house,” Larry says. “The electricians had to open every wall to run the new wiring, and every wall in the house had to be replastered and repainted.”
The walls and ceilings, including the coved ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms, bear another distinctive feature of some homes in that era – rough plaster. A team of skilled artisans repaired every crack and fissure. But, the process is messy, so all of the floors, including planks of heart pine and oak, had to be refinished.
The entire kitchen was gutted and renovated with updated appliances, cabinets and countertops. A load-bearing wall was replaced with an I-beam to allow a new configuration for the kitchen, first-floor bedroom closet, main bathroom, a new laundry room, an added half bath and a walk-in pantry.
Other major improvements enhanced the home’s safety and function. The previously damp basement was treated, waterproofed and is now used as a storage space. Additional beams and piers fortified the nearly century-old foundation. Upstairs, the second full bathroom was completely renovated, with the exception of the ceiling and its skylights.
An unforeseen bonus has been a whole-house generator, which came with the home and has saved the day during occasional power outages, like when Larry and Bev’s next-door neighbor was able to store her infant’s bottles of milk in their freezer while they all waited for the electricity to return.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was in the attic, where Larry discovered two handwritten notes left behind in 1973 and 1974 by Mollie V. Teer – a surname that holds a place of prominence in Durham’s history. She wanted Carolyn Warren to have blankets, linens, a trunk and other items stored in the attic. Larry left the notes in place as part of the home’s provenance.
Break from the Past
Bev became an expert user of online marketplace platforms during the renovation process. She and Larry knew they would need to pare down the belongings from their previous 4,200-square-foot, three-level home to fit into the bungalow.
“We had a three-car garage with a storage room and a 1,200-square-foot [unfinished] attic with 15-foot high ceilings [at our old house],” Larry says. “It had a pool table and a pingpong table and miles of storage.”
The new home does not have a garage, and all the closets are tiny, which is typical for older dwellings in the region. Even the previous pantry, with its shelves barely deep enough for a single can, left much room for improvement.
“We measured and re-measured many times to envision what furniture we’d bring and how we’d lay out the spaces,” Bev says. “All of our measurements and plans worked exactly as we had envisioned them, with one exception: a massive rolltop desk, which we had thought would be useful in the second-floor guest room. When we got here, we realized that it was much too big to get up the relatively narrow stairs and would be too large in the room. We ended up donating it.”
Bev praises Larry for his tenacity in cleaning out, painting, rebuilding and reorganizing the small closets throughout the house. “He performed miracles in creating a dry, functional storage space in the basement – previously a dungeon,” she says.
Larry was skeptical about downsizing at first. “It is kind of a surprise,” he says, “a big house with all the space you could ever dream of and more – and you think, ‘How will you be able to live in half this [space]?’” The answer, he found, is, “Yes, you can. It’s, in fact, better.”
Happy Place
Bev and Larry say all the hard work and many adjustments ultimately paid off in spades.
“We spend a lot of time in the kitchen and breakfast room, which also serves as our office,” Bev says. Large windows provide a scenic view of the backyard patio they installed, featuring large flagstones and flowering plants. “We can enjoy looking out into our garden,” she adds. “Our [first-floor] bedroom is a serene setting, and our [primary] bath is a spacious and bright space. We opened up the previously nonfunctioning fireplace and have enjoyed many fires with our grandchildren. The front porch with its porch swing has been another favorite spot.”
The Trinity Park neighborhood brings back a sense of community they felt when they lived in Evanston decades ago. In case it wasn’t already clear, Bev and Larry adore where they live – and the feeling is reciprocated. “One thing about this neighborhood is that we have made so many friends,” Bev says. “Our son’s friends live all over the neighborhood, and they have little kids. We’ve met so many nice people.”
Want to get an inside look at even more historic homes in the neighborhood? Mark your calendar for the Trinity Park Home Tour on Sunday, Oct. 20, from noon-5 p.m., featuring 12 stops that include two houses of worship and the Park itself, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
