Couillezes love charm, character of August Bergman house in renovation

Sharing a love of older homes, Philippe and Megan Couillez set out to find a house they could make their own. The couple settled on the purchase of the August Bergman house in Newton.

“I love older homes and the character of them,” Megan said.

“This house is unique. It would be difficult to duplicate what has been done here. Sure, you could imitate it but there was a certain skill required to do this type of woodwork, the stain glass work and other techniques of building,” Philippe said. “That’s the charm of this house.”

The Couillezes are renovating and restoring the home built in the early 20th Century in 1909 for August Bergman, Newton businessman and state senator from Jasper County. The historic house, 629 First Ave. E., has been through several owners and was a bed and breakfast at one time.

“We owned a home in Adel but we wanted a historic house,” Megan said. “We looked at others but those homes had been modernized too much. We saw this one was for sale, came out looked at it and knew it was a house we could fix up and restore.”

The couple pointed out the home will be a private residence for them and their daughter, Alienor, who will be 3 in June. There will be no plans to return to a bed and breakfast.

Megan, who is from Adel, and Philippe, who is from France, have each renovated older homes. They met in Chicago six years ago and got married. They purchased the Bergman home from Lila Arrowood, who bought the house in June 2015.

Megan said Arrowood began repairing the home including the roof. Philippe said circumstances prevented more renovations and Arrowood put the Bergman home on the market again.

The house was designed by Proudfoot & Bird, one of Iowa’s preeminent architectural firms at the turn of the 20th Century. The firm also designed the Jasper County Courthouse, Beardshear Hall at Iowa State, Hotel Fort Des Moines, the Masonic Temple of Des Moines and the Dallas County Courthouse.

The couple purchased the house in December 2019. Renovations of the interior of the house itself is a four-to-five year project, they said, and with exterior renovations of the property taking a couple more years to complete.

Philippe said they met with their contractor and identified 37 projects to be done. He said they have broken things down in phases to finance and finish then move to the next project. The first phase began in December with the wooden floors being refinished.

“We didn’t move in until January because we needed livable space finished,” Megan said.

The couple did research about August Bergman and found the original house plans. Philippe said Bergman appeared to be a very classic man but also was investing in emerging technology.

“Looking at the chandelier here above the dining room table is a replication of one of the industrial-age style, which I think if it had been available at the time it would be something he’d be interested in having,” Philippe said. “We’re staying with the spirit of the house and bringing in some touches of what he seemed to be open to according to my research.”

Phase one included the bedrooms upstairs, two other bedrooms, the hallway, library and entry hall. Those rooms were completed from December to January. Phase two had the playroom, living room, dining room and atrium addressed.

“The plaster walls had to be patched because there were cracks. The walls had fabric wall paper and we’ve replaced that,” Megan said.

In revocation projects, there are problems to solve and surprises to work through. They found an original bathroom sink to put back into the house. They discovered some brick walls they weren’t expecting and a piece of “artwork” — a drawing of a dinosaur by a young man named Joel — while removing an entertainment center in a room.

Electrical and plumbing was a mess, according to the couple, and all has to be replaced and brought up to code. Heating in the house is by a boiler system which works but there is no working air conditioning system.

“There are four air conditioning units outside but it doesn’t work and it is all disconnected. The cost of replacing it is prohibitive at this point and also we looked at the cost of what it took to keep guests comfortable during the bed and breakfast days,” Megan said. “We’re just going to do without and if we need it, we’ll have a window unit in the part of the house we need it in.”

Megan said the couple had most of the furniture for the house purchased before moving in. She said they found several places to purchase the period-specific furniture in Iowa. They are staying in the style of the years of 1750-1925.

“With the few modern updates you have to have in a some of the rooms,” she added.

Philippe said the general contractor they have has found the sub-contractors who specialize such as flooring, painting and other jobs for the renovation. The August Bergman house is on the National Register of Historic Places and the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the National Park Service have formally recognized the Bergman House as a significant example of the work of Proudfoot and Bird.

This is the largest renovation project either Megan or Philippe have done. Megan said in 2012, she gutted an older home in Iowa and did it all and Philippe restore a 1929 home in Ohio.

“Being French, this house — by those standards — is not old,” he laughed. “My parents live in a house which is over 200 years old. It is important to us to do things right here with this house because it is a great historic home.”

There will be seven bedrooms and four and half bathrooms in the home when completed. The master bedroom in the basement has a copper ceiling, which has been painted. The couple plans to remove the paint to restore the original ceiling.

The house has three Van Briggle fireplaces — living room, library and in the walk-in closet, which was a former den.

With warmer weather in April, the couple has moved to Phase 3 which includes fixing the front porch, fixing the pergola, the balcony, the stucco of the house, resealing the outside of the house and painting it. There’s a great deal of work to be done to the front porch area. They are attempting to salvage as many of the tiles as possible.

Philippe has started the work on the yard which includes an English inspired garden in the back and a Spanish inspired garden in the front yard. The plan is to build a layered 3-4 level retaining wall to the top of the hill, putting in a fence on top of the hill, then having little ponds and garden bushes in the front.

The backyard garden started shaping up the past two weeks with pavers installed, plantings for floors and herbs. The benches and garden arbor have been placed. The garden will also have a children’s playground.

Philippe and Megan hope to have the exterior work completed by end of August. They said are planning an open house to allow the community to come and see parts of the house.

“Since we started the Facebook page, we’ve had so much interest in what we’re doing,” Philippe said. “We still have several long-range plans. We plan on renovating the garage and carriage house, and removing the commercial kitchen and doing an expansion to the back of the house.”

“Those are long-range things,” Megan said. “We will remove the paved parking area and plant grass and install a fence to the property.”

The Couillezes have been posting information and photos of the home’s renovation on Facebook. To follow the progress, go to their Facebook page — The August H Bergman House.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at 641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com