With the beginning of the Progressive Era, 1890 was an exciting time of growth and innovation in America. The construction of the Hazeltine Mansion in Grand Rapids, Michigan certainly followed suit. In its prime, the mansion was a sight to behold with its stone walls, river rock foundation, high ceilings, and almost 90 leaded-glass windows. This historic mansion has seen many occupants and uses in its 127 year history, including music lessons, apartments, and even an instrument factory in the basement.
The most recent owners, Rae and David Green saw the home’s potential immediately upon visiting the mansion. They acted quickly, not only purchasing the home, but commissioning a complete restoration/renovation for its use as an addiction treatment center for men. It is now “The Sanford House at John Street for Men”. When tackling this enormous project, they turned to Kevin Elzinga of Heritage Window Restoration for his expertise in turn of the century restorations and reputation for impeccable window transformations.
Kevin was not always Grand Rapids go-to guy for window restoration. In fact, he worked in retail for 19 years before discovering his true calling and passion for bringing historic windows back to life. He attended a two-week training program with the Michigan Historic Preservation Network (which featured ABATRON products) to learn more about window restoration and entrepreneurship, and the rest is history. Now, his Lead-Safe Certified Firm works state-wide installing wood and aluminum storms. They also repair wood storms and will be adding custom creation services soon. Although his business has continued to grow, Kevin keeps his workforce minimal. He loves the work he does and would hate to end up back in an office.
Although he has tackled projects of all sizes, Kevin notes the significance of this restoration, not only because of its prominent history within the Heritage Hills historic district, but also because of its grandeur. Heritage Window Restoration dedicated almost a year to this project, six months of which they set up shop right in the house.
Kevin and his two man work crew utilize ABATRON products on almost all of their jobs, but specifically for this project they used LiquidWood® to strengthen the windows prior to repairing the broken muttons and sashes with WoodEpox®. They also utilized dry powdered pigments to match the coloring of the existing wood. In fact, he was able to match the coloring so well that he did not feel comfortable taking an after picture, because the repairs were so seamless he could not tell which of the windows had been repaired.
Kevin has been a long-time advocate of ABATRON products because of their ease of use, local availability, and the high level of customer support afforded to all customers. He even recommends them to home owners he does not end up doing repairs for, because he believes that everyone should have their windows repaired with a quality product, regardless of their budget or his availability.
To learn more about Heritage Window Restoration, please visit their Facebook page.
For your window repair needs in Michigan, contact Kevin Elzinga at (616) 446-3503 or heritagewindowrestoration@gmail.com
