It’s hard to imagine a couple better suited to owning and restoring an historic Chicago bungalow than Katrina and Mike Morrissey.
Over the last decade, they have lovingly restored their Austin home, bringing back some of the original character, which had disappeared over the years. They also got married, added three children to their family and did that lion’s share of the restoration work themselves, while holding down jobs in other fields.
The Chicago Bungalow Association recently awarded the couple with a Driehaus Award, recognizing their work making over their kitchen and putting them in the company of other Chicago-area bungalow owners who take the stewardship of the iconic style homes seriously.
Created in 2005 by the Chicago Bungalow Association, with the support of The Driehaus Foundation, the Driehaus Bungalow Awards are an annual, juried competition honoring the creativity and efforts of homeowners of Chicago bungalows. Homeowners can submit their home improvement projects for a chance to win $1,000 in up to seven award categories, including interior and exterior renovations, restoration, and landscape design.
“These projects that the judges selected fit the spirit of the Driehaus Bungalow Awards,” said Mary Ellen Guest, executive director at the Chicago Bungalow Association. “They are attainable projects that will inspire other bungalow owners across the city.”
Katrina Morrissey said that when she and Mike got engaged and began looking for houses, they knew they wanted a Chicago-style bungalow.
“We just loved the history and the working class past that came with homes. That’s all we wanted was a bungalow,” she said.
They found the home of their dreams in Austin, not too far from Mike’s dad in Oak Park. While the bungalow might have been a dream come true for the couple, Morrissey acknowledged that the home had great bones, but not a great aesthetic.
“It needed so much work,” she said.
Early on in their homeownership, the couple got a quote to redo their back porch. Katrina recalled the quote was higher than expected, and Mike thought he could do the work himself. It turned out he was right.
Mike, who is a teacher by day, proved to be a quick learner. Katrina said that her husband didn’t even own tools when they met. When faced with a new house that needed a lot of work, though, he turned to the internet to teach himself how to start restoring the home.
“It turned out that Mike was very good at learning to do things himself. He bought tools and taught himself how to do things,” she said.
While Mike does the carpentry, Katrina, who works as an occupational therapist, takes on jobs such as painting, staining and styling. She said that over the near-decade in the home, “it has been a true team effort to get this house close to the way we want it.”
After doing more work on the house, like restoring the original front windows and stripping the painted woodwork, the couple turned their eyes to their kitchen. They assumed they would need to hire professionals to help with a project of this scale, but a chance discovery led them to do the bulk of the work on their own.
They found the kitchen’s original subway tile buried under layers of newer tile. Katrina noted that once they realized they were able to salvage the tile, it inspired them to tackle the entire room.
She said, “We wanted to be true to the historical style of the home, and the tile was a big part of that. It goes halfway up the wall. Being able to salvage the tile was also a big budget saver.”
Along the way, they were guided by some photos that an earlier resident of the home shared with them.
“Most of the photos were of her family, but we were able to see what the living room, original bathroom, kitchen and front of the house looked like. It was great to see the tile in the kitchen photo,” Katrina said.
They started stripping the tile in 2020, and continued their work while their two children were napping, as well as on nights and weekends. They removed layers and layers of flooring to reveal the original maple floors.
While they hired Peter’s Woodworking to help sand and refinish the floors, Mike stripped the kitchen’s painted woodwork, and Katrina re-stained it. Mike built the new kitchen cabinets himself in his basement workshop, using the pantry’s original cabinets as a guide.
Katrina found evidence that a large sink with a drainboard had once been under the windows, and she found a salvaged vintage sink to put in the new kitchen. They also found an older, salvaged door with a transom window above it to install in the rear of the kitchen. Katrina said that using older materials was a key to putting the kitchen back to the way it might have originally looked.
One area where they embraced modern: the appliances.
“We like the old aesthetic but not to the extreme where we would put in vintage appliances,” she said.
While the kitchen project was finished before their third child’s arrival, Katrina said that she and Mike have grown used to using their spare time to work on the home, and the award is just the icing on the cake.
“This is a passion project for us,” she said.
“What I want to show people is that you don’t have to rip everything out and go modern. You can save a lot of money and a lot of things from going to the landfill if you embrace what’s there.”
