{"id":1748,"date":"2025-09-10T02:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T02:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aiadallas.org\/columns\/?p=1748"},"modified":"2025-09-10T16:39:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T16:39:49","slug":"pictureline-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aiadallas.org\/columns\/pictureline-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Pictureline Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pictureline Drive<\/em> was built by Kenneth Thoma, a professional brick mason working on the Dallas Trade Center, in the 1960s.\u00a0He and his wife, Ella Jeanne, spent three and a half years building this home\u2014brick by brick, board by board, nail by nail.\u00a0They had three daughters who they brought into the process by letting them nail a few shingles over their bedrooms. In 1964, they finally moved into this forever home.\u00a0The Thoma family enjoyed Pictureline<\/em> together for almost 34 years until Kenneth passed. A few years later, Ella Jeanne sold the home and moved to Plano.\u00a0In the following 13 years, the house wasn\u2019t cared for, was occupied by renters, and then fell apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Jon and I were newlyweds. We had met in architecture school and were commuting to Dallas each day to work in the design field. We had no intention of buying a home but made a connection while considering a rental property. One thing led to another, and we were looking at properties to purchase.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we first walked into Pictureline<\/em>, we were hit with the harsh smell of pet urine. It was dark and musty. Dust was in the air. The place was filthy. Then, we saw the curved brick wall creating the massing for the fireplace. We turned the corner and realized the kitchen was carved out of that same brick massing. Jon inspected the wall and realized it was a true load bearing brick wall, not veneer.\u00a0Everything was dirty, old, and broken, but we couldn\u2019t get the brick details out of our minds.\u00a0We walked through the back of home, and it was just as grotesque as the rest. The bathrooms were worse… but the layout was efficient, the laundry room enormous, and the bedrooms oversized. That day, we wore rose colored glasses and saw what this home could become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pre-renovation, Courtesy of Jon and Lindsey Beck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

We closed on the house in late June and didn\u2019t waste any time. For two months, every waking moment not spent at work was spent on the remodel. We didn\u2019t have the funds to get far, but we got far enough to move in on the first of September.\u00a0At that time, only one bedroom and one bathroom were functional. We had replaced all of the plumbing from the street and caped the areas we weren\u2019t ready to tackle. We replaced the electrical wiring on the front half of the house and added new recessed fixtures throughout. We raised the ceiling two feet in the family room and added a bank of skylights along one side. We smoothed the walls and ceilings to a level five texture in the main spaces, replaced the old carpet with new flooring, replaced all trim, and gave the house a fresh coat of paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, we went room by room, project by project, and slowly revived Pictureline<\/em>. We left the essence of the original 1964 mid-mod ranch-style home by preserving its existing brick floors, the magnificent load bearing brick wall, and the twisted column in the back\u2014which Kenneth named \u201cSomething Else\u201d\u2014but we added what we needed to support our modern life including ample built-in storage, custom closets, two home office spaces, low energy windows, quartz countertops, high ceilings in the main space, an outdoor fire pit, an air conditioned flex space, a spa-like shower with a rain head, and so much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This home wasn\u2019t just a project or flip for us\u2014it was our life for years. We poured our heart into it. We sweat and literally bled for it. Then, we brought our family home to it. The eight years we invested here is a drop in the bucket compared to the Thoma family’s 34 years, but we are thankful for the opportunity to give this home a fresh start and extend its life that Kenneth began in 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photography by Charles Davis Smith, Provided by Studio Beck. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictureline Drive was built by Kenneth Thoma, a professional brick mason working on the Dallas Trade Center, in the 1960s.\u00a0He and his wife, Ella Jeanne, spent three and a half years building this home\u2014brick by brick, board by board, nail by nail.\u00a0They had three daughters who they brought into the process by letting them nail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-preservation-renovation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPictureline Drive - Columns - AIA Dallas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aiadallas.org\/columns\/pictureline-drive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pictureline Drive - 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