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Omaha Magazine

The House on the Corner

Jun 04, 2017 02:26PM ● By Carol Crissey Nigrelli

Welcoming. Warm. Unpretentious. Good vibes emanate from the stately beige stucco house on the corner of 52nd and Jackson streets in Omaha’s historic Dundee neighborhood. Inside the three-story structure, the main reasons for the comfortable, lived-in atmosphere scamper about on four legs.

Three Labradors—Buddy, Beaumont, and puppy Jackson (named in honor of the street that runs along the south side of the property)—form the center of attention and affection within the happy household. Homeowners Marj Plumb and wife Tracy Weitz refer to them simply as “the boys.”

A lifestyle where they would be walking dogs through a vibrant neighborhood and living in a jewel of a house never registered a blip on the couple’s radar until four years ago when the academics, working and teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades, took a leap of faith.

“I’m originally from Illinois, and I wanted to get back to the Midwest,” says Plumb, who holds a doctorate in public health from Berkeley and owns a consulting business. When Weitz, a medical sociologist, received a director-level job offer with the Susan T. Buffett Foundation in late 2013, they got their destination. When they toured the area around the University of Nebraska-Omaha, they found their neighborhood. And when they saw the house on the corner, “It was exactly what we wanted,” Plumb says. “We love to entertain, and it’s an expansive house. Just an amazing find.”

Purchasing the five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath house won them instant equity with their neighbors. The property had sat empty for three years and had deteriorated badly. A general contractor bought it and did some renovations, including an overhaul of the kitchen, before flipping it. But much work remained.

“The first year involved replacing the sewer line, which backed up, replacing the main furnace, plus the furnace in the basement and third floor,” Plumb recalls. “We replaced the [central] air conditioners, fixed the roof, replaced the gutters, upgraded the electrical, and replaced all the windows, which leaked badly. Oh, and the yard was in bad shape.”

Selling their Berkeley bungalow provided the necessary funds.

“We knew when we bought it that we were going to put in probably twice what we paid for it [$387,000],” she says. “But we had to do right by the house, because it’s so unique.”

Built in 1925, the house stands out because of its Beaux-Arts design, an architectural rarity in Omaha, though widely known on the East Coast.

A distinctive feature of Beaux-Arts includes a flat roof on top, and a roof pitch that comes almost straight down along the sides of the house. A decorative wrought-iron trim rims the edges of the roof. Plumb and Weitz added a similar trim along the garage roof for continuity.

Two round, sculpted, and painted emblems of a dog and squirrel hang on the front of the house. In another original enrichment, decorative pavers form an arch over the front door.

“What strikes me about this house is that it sits in the midst of all this brick in the neighborhood. It’s such a treasure,” says Trish Barmettler, the couple’s interior designer. “And you can’t tell from the outside how big it really is.”

The house boasts a bright sunroom off the kitchen; formal dining room with a door that leads to a deck and patio; a large, dark-oak bar in the living room, fully stocked with spirits; carpeted basement filled with gym equipment and a large 3D-TV on the wall; and a newly built greenhouse behind the garage.

The biggest renovation project transformed the south side of the second floor into a master bedroom suite. Contractors stripped drywall to expose an original brick wall between the bedroom and the bath. The bath area contains sinks, a vanity, a two-person shower, two walk-in closets, a vertical washer/dryer combo, and a heated floor.

The couple’s contractor, Bill Bolte of Bolte Construction, also figured out a way to build a deck off the bathroom, where the couple can luxuriate in their hot tub and enjoy the outdoor view from a higher perch.

Two tenants, a graduate student and her boyfriend, occupy the finished third floor. They serve as house managers and dog caretakers when Plumb and Weitz go out of town on frequent business trips.

“I still remember the want ad. ‘Live Free in Dundee,’” says the vivacious young woman, who prefers to remain anonymous. “I thought, ‘Hell yeah, that’s for me!’”

Their digs include a furnished bedroom with a big-screen TV, a sitting room with another television, walk-in closets, and a surprisingly spacious bathroom with shower and tub. The tenants have kitchen privileges but buy their own food. A compatible bunch, the four often eat together.

The good will that flows between Plumb, Weitz, and their neighbors feeds off the courtesy the couple shows regarding “the boys.” A second, shorter wrought-iron fence around the property prevents the dogs from getting too close to, and barking at, dog walkers and passersby. On the street corner, they also installed a pet waste station that contains a trash can and plastic bags for dog poop.

“The neighbors love it. Somebody bought replacement bags and wrote, ‘To Our Favorite Neighbors,’” Plumb recounts with a big smile. “We’ve had nothing but incredible fortune here.” 

This article appears in the May/June 2017 edition of Omaha Home.

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