Paula Quintana sat on her living-room sofa Friday, her eyes wide and full of happy tears as dozens of volunteers painted woodwork, installed grab bars and prepped the floors of her 112-year-old house for new tile and carpet.
A white sheet cake with the words “Happy Birthday” in rainbow lettering rested on the coffee table in front of her.
Because this year, for her 85th birthday, instead of the usual family barbecue where more grands and great-grands show up than Quintana can keep track of, this longtime Curtis Park resident received a total house makeover.
“I never expected anything like this,” said Quintana, who moved into her home on Stout Street 55 years ago and raised five children there, one of whom was born in the house.
“Everything’s beautiful,” she said. “I’m so happy.”
The rehabilitation of Quintana’s old house marked the only Denver residential project during HGTV’s recent “Change the World, Start at Home” campaign. While volunteers from the network and its local partner, the community development nonprofit Rebuilding Together Metro Denver, scraped wallpaper, refinished walls, changed out appliances and installed a new bathroom, others planted trees around the neighborhood and made improvements to the nearby headquarters of the Women’s Bean Project. Properties in Washington; Baltimore; St. Paul, Minn.; and New Orleans also benefited from the “Change the World” campaign.
“When I was young I would do everything” around the house, Quintana said. The family also helps her out when and how they can. But particularly since the death of her husband, Ernest Quintana, the house that serves as sanctuary for generations of Quintanas had fallen into disrepair.
“Our mission here is to help her remain safely in her home as long as possible,” said Laurie Wagner. The development director for Rebuilding Together Metro Denver was on hand Friday for the final day of work on Quintana’s house.
“We want the home to be warm, safe and dry,” Wagner said, “so we prioritize those items. For example she needed her roof replaced, which we did so we don’t have leaks. And from a safety standpoint, her only bathroom was up on the second floor. We wanted to get a bathroom on the main floor, so there’s a half-bath going in.”
The week-long renovation included a few unforeseen challenges. For instance, volunteers never expected to find six layers of wallpaper plus a layer of cardboard when they began prepping the walls for a fresh coat of paint. All of that needed to be scraped off, and then the walls skim-coated to make them paintable again.
And then there was Denver’s fickle spring weather.
“We have to do all of our power-tool work outside because there’s no room in the house,” Wagner said. “We erected some canopies and we were out there in the rain and the snow. It was like a bad camping trip.”
But with extra hands from members of the Quintana family, including her eldest children, Ernie Quintana and Estella Lucero, and her grandson, Steve, the updated house quickly came together.
Now her living room and dining room are a fetching shade of robin’s-egg blue, floors that had been there as long as the family have been replaced, and a handrail along the back steps will allow the elderly homeowner to step down into her backyard after years of not being able to do that.
“It’s been a lot of years since this type of work has been done here,” said Ernie Quintana, 60. “These volunteers aren’t even getting paid, and they’re just sweating and working hard like it’s their own home.”
Amy Quimby of HGTV said the Quintana house was ideal for the network’s “Change the World” program.
“It’s a historic home in a historic neighborhood, and restoration is a big part of what we try to do,” Quimby said. “This project in particular was a beautiful fit.”
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: ejefferson@denverpost.com or 303-954-1957
