Landmark Everett home falls victim to heat gun
By Marcie Miller
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Mike and Lisa Greenleaf spent eight years of their lives painstakingly renovating their historic home on Rucker Hill.
They spent Monday night painfully watching firefighters chop holes in the thatch-style shingle roof, trying to keep it all from going up in smoke.
Greenleaf said they purchased the house on Laurel Drive in 1992 and moved in the week before Christmas. It is a landmark on Rucker Hill, one of only two houses in Everett built in the early 1920s as show houses for an early real estate company with Dutch owners. The distinctive rounded roofline gives the house an Old World storybook appearance.
The unusual house has always attracted attention.
"We had 10 people a day stop and ask us questions about the house," Greenleaf said.
For Lisa Greenleaf, it was love at first sight —- though Mike Greenleaf was not so sure.
He had grown up in the neighborhood and remembered the house in better days, but in recent years it had not been well-maintained, and was beginning to show its age.
"I tried to tell her it was more than we could tackle, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer," Mike Greenleaf said.
There were problems throughout the house, from mold and mildew to a crumbling foundation and outdated wiring.
But the roof was in good shape.
The unique roof construction included steam-bent shingles wrapping around the corners, built up in six to eight layers to imitate a heavy thatch look.
The other house with the same type of cottage roof is just two blocks away. When owners Della and Chris Yue wanted to fix their roof last year, they had to have the shingles shipped from Florida, along with an expert to supervise the costly installation.
Bringing their home back to its original glory became an obsession for the Greenleafs.
They poured $200,000 into the house, replacing everything from the foundation to wiring, plumbing, exterior stucco and interior plaster walls.
"We wanted to retain the history of the house," Greenleaf said. "We got excited working on the house — it felt like home."
Until Monday.
Greenleaf was stripping the paint off the soffits on the entryway with a heat gun and scraper, finishing up a process he has performed on almost all the trim on the house.
Shortly before 6 p.m., he went into the house to pour a cup of coffee and talk to his wife.
"I smelled smoke, and turned around to look out the window to see who was burning with the burn ban on," he said. "Then I saw smoke coming out the corner of the soffit — and panic set in."
In what he estimates was just a three-minute time span, Greenleaf and the neighbors started hosing down the tinder-dry roof. Greenleaf dragged a hose into the crawl space over an upstairs bedroom, and when he sprayed the ridge rafter and was met with hissing steam, he realized it was time to call 911.
Within minutes, Everett firefighters were on the scene.
"They went to work carving the masterpiece with chain saws and axes," Greenleaf said. "Then the tears really started."
Acting battalion chief John Gage said the crew worked for four hours tearing and cutting the thick shingled roof, trying to keep the fire from spreading and letting the smoke out of the house.
They managed to contain the damage to the front of the roof and part of the ridgeline. Greenleaf said one bedroom was badly damaged, and the rest of the house suffered extensive water damage.
Gage estimated the damage at between $50,000 and $60,000.
Greenleaf said the fire probably started by a tiny ember being ignited by the heat gun and blown into the soffit.
He has nothing but praise firefighters and his neighbors.
Firefighters moved furniture to the middle of the living room and covered it with tarps to minimize water damage. They also rescued daughter Bailey’s two guinea pigs.
Neighbor girls baked cookies for the firefighters, some of whom stayed all night to make sure the fire stayed out.
"We have the greatest neighbors in the world," Greenleaf said. "I can’t believe what they’ve done for us. They’ve offered us money, food, housing, the world."
After eight years of work, Greenleaf said painting the trim was going to be almost the last project before they took a breather and went to Florida for a vacation.
Instead, they will be meeting with contractors, trying to put their storybook home back together again.
"It set us back a couple of years, but life has to go on," Greenleaf said. "We’re devastated, but we realized when we bought this house we would do whatever it would take. We just didn’t think it would be this."
You can call Herald Writer Marcie Miller at 425-339-3292
or send e-mail to mmiller@heraldnet.com.
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