Historical Re-Construction
Overview
In the heart of Coral Gables sits the MacFarlane Homestead District, one of the area’s oldest neighborhoods, and this home had stood there for nearly a century. Time had taken its toll. The siding was peeling, the flooring had rotted, and the roof had begun to sag. As a wood-framed structure, it had aged in ways that left very little of the original worth preserving, and a full re-construction became the only real option: rebuilding the house from the ground up rather than patching over problems that ran far deeper than the surface.
Drag to compare before & after
Rebuilding the Core
Once the original house had been demolished and the new foundation was in place, the real work began. Fully wood-framed homes are a rare sight in South Miami, and for good reason: our hurricanes are hard on timber, so most homes here are built from block and concrete instead. That made every decision matter. The new house had to satisfy today’s building code while still looking and feeling like the home that had stood on this lot for generations. The architectural and structural plans, drawn up by William Medellin, were designed to meet elevated wind and weather-resistance requirements, so the finished structure could hold its own against the next big storm without giving up the character of the original.
Material Sourcing
Tracking down the right materials turned out to be one of the biggest challenges of the whole build.
The first hurdle was Tyvek DrainWrap, a specialty weather barrier made for wood structures. It is common enough in other parts of the country, but almost nobody in Florida stocks it. After some hunting, we found a vendor up in northern Florida who happened to have extra inventory left over from an earlier project, which let us get exactly what we needed without holding up the schedule.
The second hurdle was history itself. Building a home that looked right for its era meant sourcing materials the way they were made a hundred years ago. To recreate the original siding profile, we had a custom profile knife made and placed a special order through our vendor. It took extra time and extra effort, but that is the difference between a house that merely looks old and one that stays true to the character it was built with.
The finished home went on to earn the Dade Heritage Trust Award in 2025, a rewarding bit of recognition for a rebuild that set out to honor the neighborhood it belongs to.