Josh and Cari Davis bought an old brick home at 1113 Pa. in 2002, working painstakingly to restore the property. The site was in such bad shape that no bank would initially loan them the money to buy it. They were recently honored by the Lawrence Preservation Alliance for their work remodeling the home.

A heavy metal plate helps secure the outside walls of Josh and Cari Davis’ old brick home at 1113 Pa.

The Davises have built a 600-foot-square addition to double the size of their east Lawrence house.

When Josh and Cari Davis first started fixing up their house in east Lawrence, they didn’t even own it. It was in such bad shape, no bank would loan them the money to buy it.

It was basically a shell of a house. Two of its walls were so rotted out they were essentially worthless, and its very foundation had to be replaced. There was a giant hole in the middle of the floor.

“People would come by and see us working on it and say we were crazy,” Josh says of those early years from 2000 to 2002 when they were fixing up the site, 1113 Pa., enough to persuade a lender to give them a mortgage. “But others would come by and use their imagination and see what we saw. They’d say, ‘This is going to be so cute.'”

Their remodel was funded at first by Joe Bickford and Marci Francisco, who have worked for years with the Lawrence Preservation Alliance to save historic buildings.

“They basically acted as a bank until a real bank was willing to step in,” Josh explains. “They’re amazing.”

In turn, the LPA honored them at its second annual awards dinner, which was May 6.

“We’ve noticed all the work Josh and Cari have put into their house since 2002. But just as important, they’re active in their neighborhood association,” says LPA president Dennis Brown, who also notes the couple have volunteered with other preservation projects and recently assisted with the Save Our Schools campaign. “We’re really happy to recognize them with this award.”

Since those early days when the house was on the brink of extinction, the Davises have built a 600-square-foot addition, doubling the size of the house.

“I like the character the old part the house brings to it and the modern feel of the addition,” says Josh, a construction administrator with Treanor Architects. “It flows like a modern house, but it has a quality that can only be attained through time.”

It was hard work getting it to that point. For Josh, the worst part was when they when they had to rebuild part of one of the walls in a crawlspace. “It was claustrophobia, spiders, general dirtiness,” he says.

But it was satisfying watching the house take shape.

“I liked seeing it go from the stage where most people would say it’s unsavable to the stage where people were saying, ‘I can see it,'” he says. “To see it go from rubble to something people could picture.”

And to a place he and his wife, who’s a teacher at Pickney School, and their sons can call home.

“It’s very important to preserve old buildings,” Josh says. “For one, when they’re gone, they’re gone, and there’ll be no turning back on it.

“It also helps give the neighborhood a sense of identity, helps make it feel more real, more lived in,” he adds. “It’s something that shows that we’re not the first ones to pass through here, and we won’t be the last.”