1 of 4
2 of 4
3 of 4
4 of 4
With seven years of experience as the president of Carbine & Associates building company, John Montgomery knows how to build a house. When it came to his own home in Westhaven, he wanted to build a house that told a story. With help from his wife, Margaret Ann, John began pulling inspiration from his favorite architect: A. Hays Town of Louisiana. Town was known for being one of the first architects to incorporate old building materials into new houses, which the Montgomerys admired.
Although built in 2011, the Montgomerys' house is modeled after a Louisiana Lowcountry residence from the early 1900s, with features added on throughout the years. One such added feature is the structure of the front porch that distinctly shows how an originally open porch would have transitioned to a section of enclosed space thanks to architectural changes over time. Other historical details in the house include 100-year-old bricks recovered from a federal building in Kentucky and beams reclaimed from a Virginia warehouse built in 1900.
Despite the time involved in sourcing old materials, the couple and local architect Preston Shea managed to design and build the house in under a year. While Margaret Ann credits the quick process to sharing the same vision with her husband, John attributes it to the historical inspiration for the home. The house contains material salvaged from buildings more than a century old, but it also features modern amenities like foam insulation and tankless water heaters. The Montgomerys achieved this balance of old and new in the kitchen by incorporating modern appliances with classic white cabinets with inset doors based on an old cabinetry construction method.
Each room has a unique detail that's not found anywhere else in the house: From the closet with Margaret Ann's beloved arched door to the angled ceiling in the office, the couple rejected the traditionally uniform home.
'If you walk through a house that has some subtleties and some changes, people might not be able to point them out,” John says. 'But I think they feel them.”
Specific details aside, the Montgomerys never chased perfection for the home their three sons will grow up in. John, who remains a consultant at Carbine as he begins the foundation for his custom home building company, Montgomery Classic Construction, welcomes mistakes and flaws.
Paul Goyette Photography