Chuck and Margaret Gall were the parents of two small children when they bought a brand new house in Lake Highlands 18 years ago and started working on it. They haven’t stopped since. There were a couple of major projects in the first few years. When the family grew to include a third child in 1983, the addition of two bedrooms, a bathroom and a game room upstairs was deemed necessary.
Then, to keep the brood entertained during the summer months, the Galls had a backyard pool put in. Once these initial improvements were finished, they turned their attention back to the original structure. Chuck is an attorney, and he wanted a room that could be used as a home office.
“Originally there were four bedrooms,” Margaret said. “Chuck’s study was one of them. When we cut a huge hole in the wall, it was kind of scary. There was no going back.”
Intimidating as it might have been initially, the well-utilized room now adds charm to the front of the home. “This is Chuck’s room. He works in here almost every evening,” Margaret noted. “The things that are important to him are in here. He has a collection of books on World War II, and baseball memorabilia from when he was a child. His mother kept almost everything. Unfortunately, about the only thing she didn’t keep was his collection of baseball cards.”
Margaret is a collector also. Some of her favorite groupings include framed photographs of relatives and friends, birdhouses, demitasse cups and snowmen. Her family indulges the latter hobby especially, and in December the den is filled to overflowing with snowmen she has received as gifts over the years. Another treasured collectible is rabbits, and the guest bedroom houses a unique assortment.
“This room got started by mistake. I wanted a pastel room and rabbits are usually pastel. I started putting rabbits in here and now rabbits are everywhere. It kind of multiplied on me, so I decided to have a rabbit bedroom,” she laughed.
The home improvements are not finished yet. The living room is next on Margaret’s makeover list, and she is ready to get started. “I look everywhere for the items I use in my collections,” she said. “I’m a theme p
