April/May Das Haus

HausDasHOME & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

APRIL / MAY 2013

HISTORY BEHIND EVERY DOOR

Homeowner looks to pass on history of one of Hays’ oldest homes

1

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8 At home IN hAysHistory BeHind every door

One of Hays’ oldest homes looks for new owner

5 Cutting-Edge CabinetryHays craftsman prides himself

on being able to do anything

12 Hassle-Free LivingCondos few and far between,

but offer many benefits

14 Use It or Lose ItStuff can eat up valuable square footage in a home

features

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.Net APRIL / MAY 2013 • 3

HausDas

Published and distributed byThe Hays Daily News

507 Main, Hays, KS 67601HDNews.net

(785) 628-1081

PublisherPatrick Lowry

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Advertising DirectorMary Karst

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DesignerGayle Weber

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ContributorsDiane Gasper-O’Brien • Writer

Kaley Conner • WriterDawne Leiker • WriterJudy Sherard • Writer

Chelsy Lueth • PhotographerSteven Hausler • PhotographerElisha Jones • Creative ServicesJuno Ogle • Creative Services

Tiffany Reddig • Creative Services

Account ExecutivesJoleen Fisher

Sandra HarderEric Rathke

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Unique.That’s the kind of furniture Jeremy Huxman enjoys creating with his business, Huxman Custom Cabinets and Woodwork-ing. Whatever the customer wants, Huxman is willing to make

it happen.“The more unique, the better,” he said.His one-man business, based in his home

just outside Hays, offers full-service custom building. He focuses mainly on kitchen and bathroom cabinets and kitchen islands and countertops, but also can make items such as beds and bookcases.

The business is also the only area dealer for John Boos Butcher Blocks, a high-end type of butcher block used by several celebrity chefs. The blocks can be built into kitchen countertops.

Huxman, a native of Ransom, worked as a high school teacher in the Clifton-Clyde school district for four years. He began making log furniture on the side for extra income and became hooked on the trade of woodworking.

His family relocated to Hays, and he spent four years working at local custom cabinet shops before venturing out on his own. It was primarily the desire for a more flexible schedule that spurred his deci-sion, he said.


Cutting-edgecabinetry

Former teacher constructs customized furnishings in Hays workshop

By KALEY CONNERHays’ custom craFtsman

Continued on Page 6

“I wanted to do more things with the kids,” Huxman said. “It turns out I work more now than I did, but I can do it on weekends and eve-nings.”

He and his wife have three chil-dren, ages 10, 12 and 14.

Business has been steady, and his customer base has been in-creasing since Huxman began net-working with local interior designers. Sometimes he installs cabinets their clients order or helps with other projects, but other times he is given the opportunity to provide high-end custom cabinets for their clientele.

“I can make anything somebody shows me,” Huxman said.

“But getting hooked up with the designers in town has helped out because I couldn’t design this,” he said, gesturing to a modern, cus-tom-made bathroom cabinet he was working on earlier this year.

He also enjoys working with clients who have their own ideas, or bring him pictures of dream projects they find online.

“And Pinterest,” Huxman said, referring to the online idea board.

6 • APRIL / MAY 2013

“Pinterest is a curse and a bless-ing, I guess. People see stuff on that they want, and it’s good to get ideas off the pictures, but doing it sometimes costs more than they’d expect.”

Huxman also is willing to accom-modate the client’s budget. Using differ-ent types of materials can affect the project’s cost, and it also is possible to have only portions of a cabinet set cus-tomized.

Some customers buy mostly

stock cabinets, then Huxman makes a piece or two to fit a specific size and give the cabinets a custom-

made feel.He also is willing to

take on smaller projects, such as installing stock cabinets, countertops or hanging trim work. Hux-man also travels to outly-ing communities.

“If I won the lottery, I’d still be doing it,” he said

of his business. “It’s just what I like to do.”

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“I can make anything

somebody shows me.”

Jeremy Huxman

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2013, can you explain?A: Beginning on January 1,

2013, there is a new 3.8% tax on SOME investment income. This new tax only applies to interest, dividends, rents (less expenses) and capital gains (less capital losses).

This new tax will only fall on individuals with an adjusted gross income above $200,000 per year for single tax filers and $250,000 for couple filing a joint return. The new tax also applies to the LESSER of investment income or excess above the adjusted gross income which is the $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for couples.

Each individual has a differ-ent tax situation and it is best to check with your accountant and see if this tax will apply to you. Before you list your invest-ment property for sale, consult your accountant. A Realtor can only make you aware of a tax law change, your accountant can tell you if this tax will affect you.

THIS IS NOT A SALES TAX ON ALL REAL ESTATE TRANSAC-TIONS, ONLY THOSE INVOLVING INVESTMENT PROPERTY.

Q: We are interested in purchas-ing our first home. We have

been to a local bank and visited with a loan officer. I did not think apply-ing for a loan would be so difficult. Can you tell me why? From the ads on TV it sounds like it is much easier to apply for a loan online and out of town. Is this possible?

A: Consumers will see some ad-ditional changes coming in the near future with all banks and lending intuitions. All lenders will be re-questing more details from the loan applicant in the near future. The changes we see coming will require a consumer to be approved for a loan and with the terms and condi-tions that they are expected to follow when purchasing a home.

The consumer should under-stand that the lender will be ask-ing in great detail all aspects of the loan applicant. I have been told by a bank they may be asking for 5 months of bank statements and they will want all pages of the statement and not just the summary page. Each item on the statement will be looked at and if needed the loan ap-plicant will be asked for details sup-porting questionable items on the statement. An applicant is expected to respond to the lender’s request in a very timely fashion. If the applicant

chooses not to comply, it will only slow down the approval process. The applicant may be asked to supply pay-stubs from the employer several times during the approval process.

To answer your question regard-ing out of town or online lenders, they can make the process and terms sound very attractive. If a loan applicant chooses to go out of town for a loan they lose control of the loan process and the response time is much longer. Many times you will be moved from one loan officer to another and the documents you will need for a closing to occur can sometimes be done at the last min-ute. This will not give the applicant time to review before closing.

In using an out of town lender or an online lender the interest rate is attractive, but you need to check the other closing costs of the loan. In most cases your local bank has a lower total closing cost. The local lender may have a higher percent-age rate, but the total cost of the loan may be less and you have bet-ter control of the loan process.

Don’t be discouraged in apply-ing for a loan. Just be prepared to provide information regarding your credit history as well as work history.

Step over the thresh-old and

through the front door, and a quick glance around might make visi-tors think they have walked into a historical museum.

Just inside the entrance hang numerous photo-graphs on the wall, including those of the first owner, buffalo hunter John Schlyer.

Move a little further into the room, however, and it’s plain to see this is no museum.

8 • APRIL / MAY 2013 DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.Net

story by Diane Gasper-O’Brienphotography by Chelsy Lueth

At home IN hAys

HISTORYbehind every door


The 119-year-old building at 601 Oak in Hays might ooze of history akin to a museum, but there’s an instant homey feeling as well. With good reason.

The limestone building is a home, one the current owner hopes to turn over to someone as interested in preserving history as himself.

Larry Rupp is owner of one of Hays’ oldest houses since 1980.

For the past 33 years, Rupp has hired other contractors for carpentry, electrical and plumbing projects, then did all the finish work himself. Now, he is ready to retire, and find a buyer for his historic home.

But Rupp is not looking for just any buyer.

Rupp, who lived in the house for several years while completely reno-vating it and at other times rented it to hand-picked tenants, hopes the new owner has a similar passion for historical value.

Rich history, after all, abounds throughout the home, built by Schlyer in 1894.

While Rupp took the home through an extensive restoration pro-

cess through the years, more than just the 22-foot limestone walls are original to the house.

Both the front and side doors are the ones installed by Schlyer.

So, too, is much of the woodwork, although Rupp either refinished it or painted it with colors similar to the time period of when it was built.

Rupp, a local building restoration enthusiast, asked owners Pete and Bonnie Storm in 1977 if they would like him to restore their historical treasure.

Bonnie Storm had grown up in the house — the oldest child of Martin and Mary Eastlack, who had

bought the home from Schlyer in 1933 — and she had inherited the home after the death of her parents.

All the antique furnishings will remain in the house, including most Rupp collected for years even before he contacted the Storms to see if they wanted him to restore it.

Rupp chose wallpaper and a bur-gundy carpet to simulate the time period when the house was built.

See HISTORY, 15

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Condominiums might not be a living option for ev-eryone, but for some, it’s the perfect choice.Gary and Sheryl Blair made the move to Arbor Val-ley Estates in Hays nearly nine years ago.

The couple was looking to downsize from their single family home complete with a pool and large yard.

“We weren’t looking for a townhouse or condo,” Sheryl Blair said.

They purchased a lot and planned a custom built home, but “the house I wanted didn’t fit in the price range,” she said.

When looking at other options, the condo was “more along the lines of what we were looking for — open space and lots of light,” Gary Blair said.

With a total of 3,400 square feet of living space, it’s larger than it looks on the outside, Sheryl Blair said.

The Blairs like to travel, so the low maintenance yard is ideal.

“I get to do as much yard work as I want to do,” Gary

Blair said. “If we’re not here, gone for a couple of weeks, three weeks, we know it’s taken care of. The snow is taken care of. The monthly dues of $75 is very moderate for an association like this.”

Though it isn’t an issue for them, Sheryl Blair said follow-ing condo association rules could be difficult “if you were a free-minded person who wanted to do your own thing.”


Hassle-free living

By JUDY SHERARDcondos can mean living at its Best

Shirley Hess lived in a single family home on 3⁄4 of an acre before she moved to Arbor Valley Estates in 2010.

“It was a lot to keep up,” she said of her house. “I travel and needed someone to check on the house.”

She planned to buy a single-family home, but after looking at the condo, the convenience and loca-tion sold her.

Castillian Gardens, another con-do development, has been home for Jana Jordan for five years.

“I’m alone and don’t need a great deal of space,” Jordan said. “It’s smaller and affordable.”

Her former home had a swim-ming pool, and she wanted to be able to swim without the pool up-keep. Castillian Gardens has a pool and pool house for residents’ use.

“They do the maintenance on (the) yard,” Jordan said of the condo association. “I still can have my herb garden and flowers. That’s

enough for me to take care of.”Jordan likes the close proxim-

ity of neighbors and the friendly atmosphere.

Owners are responsible for maintaining their own units and paying for repairs, but outside im-

provements and changes must be approved by the association.

“It makes you take time and have a plan. I enjoy living in a condo. The fees even out if I had to pay to mow the lawn, trim (the) trees.”

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Whether you’re consider-ing downsizing your “stuff” because of a move to a smaller home

or because you want an unencumbered living space, a good place to start is by as-sessing the value of the space you’re using for storage.

“I suggest people look up how many square feet are in their house and what’s the value of that house, and divide the two so that you know what each square foot of your house is worth,” said Linda Beech, Ellis County Extension agent. “And then you say, ‘Is this really how I want to use this square foot of valuable space, by hoarding some things I haven’t used in a long, long time?’

“It’s really eye-opening.”Beech, who moved to Hays from

Garden City only a year ago, has a not-so-distant memory of evaluating her own family’s belongings during the move to a smaller home. After raising her children and living in the same home 16 years, she found many things that just didn’t match up with the lifestyle she anticipated in Hays.

“We had to renegotiate, figure out where things fit,” she said. “What do we keep and what do we move?”

Beech started by measuring their new home’s space, then real-istically evaluating the usefulness of her family’s belongings. Several items, including a weight bench that had been used only as a shirt hanger for about a decade, didn’t make the cut.

Not only does it take up valuable space but “stuff” can get in the way of relationships, Beech said.

“Our belongings are a cost to us,” she said. “I think there’s a real stress fac-tor when we’ve got too many things and we are trying to figure out what

to do with them, and we’ve quickly got to throw things in the closet and slam the door, because somebody’s coming to the front door.

“There’s also the expense of maintaining them and cleaning them and managing them and buying a basket or a bookcase or a storage bin to artfully store them in. It ends up costing us to have too many things.”

In the spirit of community, Beech said, an individual should consider whether it’s reasonable to hang onto items that could have value to another community mem-ber. That point was driven home to Beech when she “stumbled into” Hays’ Community Assistance Center a few weeks ago.

She saw cut glass bowls with prices of approxi-mately 50 cents and recalled the cut glass serving dishes in her own cabi-net.

That realization helped Beech determine to either use the dishes and create memories with her fami-lies or downsize the items so others could enjoy them.

Making the transition from an over-abundance of “stuff” for one household to fulfilling the true needs of another household is a relatively uncomplicated process.

The Community Assistance Center receives donations from individuals and estates Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to noon and by appointment by call-ing (785) 625-9110. Public garage sales of donated items, which take place the first and third Tuesdays of each month, help fund the center’s food pantry. In addition, donated art supplies are given to local after-school programs, said Laurie Mortinger, Community Assistance Center director.

“We can always use household stuff,” she said. “A lot of people, if they relocate ... there’s all kinds of situations, and people need things

they can’t afford, so we try to provide that.”

OR LOSE ITUse it

By DAWNE LEIKERde-cluttering and doWnsiZing


“I think burgundy stimulates peace in a person,” he said.

The house is heated with a high-efficiency boiler.

“No noise, no fumes, very quiet,” Rupp said.

While every room has its own personality — a kitchen wall features two hanging washboards, one that belonged to Rupp’s grandmother, the other to his mother — probably the most unique one is the parlor, which features a large coffee table in the middle of the room.

Four support posts that stretch from the floor to the ceiling form a frame around a large glasstop table encased by a large gear off an old steam tractor.

Rupp used the posts as a neces-sity to support the ceiling and floor of the room above.

“Anything else like a book shelf or something would have blocked the room,” he said of his decision to go with posts. “This way, the room still is open, and I have a useful table, too.”

Rupp bought the house from the Storms in 1980 and lived there off and on through the years while doing his renovation work. He eventually rented the home to hand-picked tenants, and he put all the rent money — he estimates as much as $100,000 through the years — back into the house.

Rupp remodeled the upstairs into a two-bedroom apartment, complementing the cozy one-bed-room home below, and the property includes a 900-square-foot separate office building.

The facelift concluded a few years ago when Rupp built a wraparound

15 • APRIL / MAY 2013

porch on the south and east sides of the home.

“That really completed it,” said Rupp, who wants to see one more undertaking to completion.

He has gathered pieces of Schly-

er’s history through the years and would like to see someone compile it into a book.

“There is so much history here,” Rupp said, “and it all began with Schlyer.”

HISTORY, from 10

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April/May Das Haus

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