While they were expecting their third child, a young couple decided to take on another kind of challenge: renovating an 1871 Victorian at 97 Transit St. in Providence.

In the process, they turned the property, which had been used as a two-family, back to a single-family home.

The William Franceville House is part of an historic district, and is within walking distance to Benefit Street, Brown University and the shops and restaurants on Wickenden Street in Fox Point.

Gallery

Walk through the House of the Week

The exterior of the wood house is painted gold with white trim.

Although one of the previous owners was an architect, and had devised several renovation plans, none of them had been implemented. Bill Mark and his wife, children's book author and illustrator Denis Roche, bought the property in 2003.

"We've always liked this neighborhood," said Mark, a self-described "coffee addict" who has enjoyed living within walking distance to the Coffee Exchange on Wickenden Street.

Mark runs his family business, Norton Supply Co., of Providence, a distributor of supplies for coin-operated laundry machines.

Today the couple have four daughters, ages 8, 6, 4, and 2. And yes, they lived in the house during the entire renovation process.

Most of the work was done in 2004, and the project took six to eight months to complete. Mark said they hired a contractor, Residential Builders of Providence, to manage the job.

Like many extensive projects, this one started out small, and snowballed with a change of circumstances.

When the family first moved in, the owners' quarters were a townhouse-style apartment on the second and third floors, and there was a tenant living on the first floor. Mark and Roche had their kitchen and living room space on the second floor, and all the bedrooms were on the top floor.

"We started out just expanding the bathroom on the third floor," he said.

But then the tenant, who worked for Amgen, decided to move to Seattle.

So even though the third baby was on the way, the idea of reclaiming the entire house for their growing family became too appealing to resist.

The result is a cheery, family-friendly yet elegant home in the heart of the city.

The reconfigured house has 7 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 half bathrooms, and 3,020 square feet of living space. There is a shaded, fenced-in back yard. It is on the market for $699,900.

Mark said they are looking for a larger house with a more open floor plan, and they may even take on another "project" house, now that he and Roche have moved on to another phase in parenting.

"Almost everyone is out of diapers now," he said.

A new kitchen, at the back of the house, has a modern look, with bright gold walls, natural-wood cabinets, refinished wood floors and stainless steel appliances. The countertops are made of honed black granite "that hides the smudges," Mark said.

Roche's office is in a room off the kitchen, and what had been a rear hallway on the first floor is now an efficient combination laundry room/half bathroom.

There are two sets of stairs connecting the first and second floors; a formal stairway is near the front-door entrance, and there is a back stairway that leads upstairs from the kitchen.

The children's full bathroom on the second floor has a bold yellow/blue checkerboard tile floor, and the remaining counters and fixtures are bright white. At the entrance to the bathroom is a long counter with two sinks, and baskets lined up under the counter hold the children's bath accessories. A privacy door separates this space from the tub/shower and toilet area.

A master bedroom suite has also been created on the second floor, with a large sunny sitting room and closet area, and a private master bathroom.

There are still bedrooms on the third floor; for a while, it was used by au pairs who were living with the family. But today the couple is "going it alone" without live-in help, and the third floor is a kind of extended play space for the children. Mark said that had they decided to stay in the house, "our dream was to eventually move all the kids up to the third floor."

In addition to the kitchen and bathroom renovations and cosmetic improvements, all the windows have been replaced, and a new brick walkway installed along one side of the house, leading from the back yard to the street.

The house at 97 Transit St., in the Fox Point section of Providence, is on the market for $699,900. Annual taxes are $6,142 (this includes the homestead exemption). For more information, contact listing agent Paula Morrison of Residential Properties Ltd., (401) 553-6326.

cdunn@projo.com / (401) 277-7913