1918 Cottage

Design + Color Consulting: Brandi Katherine Herrera, A Lively Manner (Portland, Oregon)
Contractor: Casitas Construction
Photographer: Brandi Katherine Herrera

The project is a complete gut renovation of a modest worker’s cottage (767 sq ft) located in a neighborhood of Omaha known for its historic horse race track. It was built in 1918 by a truck driver, WPA worker, and labor-union member (Teamsters) named Earnest Howland, along with his wife Lucinda. Their imprint (“E. Howland Erected”) from the year it was completed is still visible in the cement steps leading up to the cottage’s front porch.

By the time Brandi and her husband discovered it in late 2023, the cottage’s original details had been completely stripped away, and was poorly flipped in the manner we refer to as the “Home Depot Special”—with a palette of gray + white builder-grade finishes, and no particular vision or care taken to restore the home’s original features or pay respect to its history.

Over the course of the following year, Brandi remotely managed our three-person contractor team to peel back those layers and re-inject charm and character. Not a surface went untouched: walls and ceilings skim-coated, painted, papered, paneled; original hardwood floors uncovered and refinished; bathroom gutted, tiled, rearranged; back porch reconstructed; original doors refurbished; additional doors + windows added; hardware updated; cabinets re-fronted and painted; new electrical wired; exterior painted; plus interior furnishings and decor. All with a budget of less than $50,000.

Throughout this process A Lively Manner had complete control of the design direction and color scheme, which is a focus of the studio. The cottage is now a color-filled, character-infused ode to its original owners, and the history of both the home and the neighborhood’s horse racing legacy.