Seven shades of paint, including delphinium bud, wild berry and mystic orchid, color the Victorian home of Debbie and J.R. Lingenfelser.

The new house, which is 35 feet tall and 28 feet wide, towers over Sixth Street.

Though only two blocks south of the post office, the house is on a street that’s not heavily traveled. But lately, the owners report, their house seems to be attracting more passersby.

“We have people drive by every day,” said Debbie Lingenfelser. “They just go real slow and they look and you can see the looks on their faces. I’ve had people downtown come up to me and say, ‘Where’d you get all those colors.'”

Neighbors, too, have been watching the progress.

Cherry and Ken Mastro live across the street.

“I think it’s a beautiful addition to the neighborhood,” Cherry Mastro said, “And we’re fortunate enough to be right across the street, so we get to see the whole thing.”

Long-time dream

The Victorian house is part of a longtime dream for J.R. Lingenfelser, who as a 9-year-old saw his family’s Victorian farmhouse burn to the ground. When the ashes cooled, not so much as a photograph of the house remained.

“Mom and Dad had had pictures, but they burned in the house,” Lingenfelser said.

Yet he remembers parts of the spacious old house as if it were yesterday. He recalls the wide stairway that led to the upstairs sitting room where he shared a room with his brother, plus four more bedrooms upstairs.

“I’ve always loved Victorians,” Lingenfelser said, noting his wife shares his love for the houses.

Debbie, who collects antiques and has a rocking chair collection, said she particularly loves the colors of Victorian houses.

And though she said she’d had to let go of her dream of a wrap-around front porch, because that would have made their house too wide for their lot, she can barely wait to move into the house.

“I’m just ready to live in it,” Debbie said. “Seems like it’s been forever.”

The house, she said Monday, was about 75 percent completed.

Once the air conditioning is installed, the couple can install Sheetrock, and the rest of the house should move along fairly quickly, she said.

In fact, they’re hoping to be in by Thanksgiving, or at the very latest, Christmas.

That will be just in time to try out their radiant heating system — which will be sure to keep their toes, and their house warm all winter.

The heating system includes a concrete layer on the top of floors in the first and second floors. Embedded in the concrete are tubes through which warm water will flow.

It’s an economical way to heat, J.R. Lingenfelser said. The heating system has zoned heating, which means they’ll be able to set the thermostats in six different rooms.

“You can keep each room whatever temperature you want it,” Lingenfelser said.

Virtual planning

In seeking plans for their house, the Lingenfelsers looked to the Internet.

Because, according to the city’s zoning rules, they already had a separate garage on their lot taking up part of their frontage, their house could only be 28 feet wide, J.R. Lingenfelser knew he’d have to adapt a house plan, most of which were drawn at 34 feet wide.

“I went to Office Depot, bought a program called Punch Pro and designed the thing myself,” Lingenfelser said.

The program allowed him to design the house and take a virtual walk inside.

“You can go on a 3-D walk through and see where you made mistakes,” Lingenfelser said, noting he could make changes.

And, for decorating purposes the computer program came in handy.

Users can take digital photographs of their furniture to show how their belongings would look in the house.

“You can take a picture of your grandmother and hang it on the wall,” Lingenfelser said. “It’s really a fun program.”

Construction crew

It’s her husband’s talent that has made the house possible, Debbie said, noting he didn’t have previous construction experience.

“He’s smart. He can read a book and he can look at something and he can build it,” Lingenfelser said. “He likes to work with his hands and likes to build things so they’re right — so they don’t fall apart.”

J.R. Lingenfelser has temporarily stopped working at the couple’s Tonganoxie liquor store so he could devote his time to building the house.

“You’re looking at my construction crew,” he said, chuckling as he stood alone in his future living room, his foot propped on the rung of a ladder.

However, he noted there’s been volunteer labor, including Debbie, his parents, George and Betty Lingenfelser, his brothers and friends.

Though he said his friends, who work in the construction field full time, usually work for him free of charge, there’s a little payoff.

“I keep the refrigerator filled with beer,” Lingenfelser said, grinning.

But basically, the house’s construction has been a one-man job. Lingenfelser, who is living in an apartment above the garage on the property, works on the house from 7:30 a.m. until about 8 p.m., or later, every day.

“I’m the only one that’s been here full time,” Lingenfelser said with a good-natured sigh.

Getting started

Originally, the Lingenfelsers had planned to start on the house in March 2004. But the preparation took longer than expected.

“I didn’t pick up a piece of wood till the end of August last summer,” Lingenfelser said.

The work began with excavation of their former house so the new house could go up in the same spot.

Then weather postponed the work.

“We were dodging the rain until they put up forms for the footing and walls,” Lingenfelser said. “I’ve pumped thousands of gallons out of this hole.”

The new house sits where the Lingenfelsers’ former house stood.

Lingenfelser said he and Debbie had lived in the house since the early ’80s. Lingenfelser said the neighborhood is part of what was called the city’s railroad addition. Originally, railroad tracks ran just east of the Lingenfelsers’ original house, which he said was built in about 1910.

They liked the neighborhood, liked their neighbors and couldn’t think of a reason to move.

So, they decided to stay put — tear down their old house and build a new house.

The Lingenfelsers don’t plan to have everything done at once. After they move in, J.R. will begin making stained glass windows to go along the front of the house. And, there’s a door they ordered to fit a beveled glass window the couple bought some 15 years ago, planning to put in their future home.

Even their neighbors, the Mastros, have helped with the house by giving the Lingenfelsers a Victorian screen door they were no longer using.

“We’re going to use it inside as my laundry room door,” Debbie said.

Meanwhile, the couple, who have been married 19 years, appreciate the fact that their exterior paint job is complete. Selecting the colors was a time-consuming process.

“We drove to Atchison and looked at their Victorians and drove around Lawrence,” Debbie Lingenfelser said. “We got on the Internet and looked and looked and researched some of the colors.

While passersby exclaim over the bright palette of seven colors, Lingenfelser said the paint selection process could have been much more complicated.

“I just had to hold him back at those seven colors,” Lingenfelser said, laughing as she recalled their discussions. “Because he said some of the old Victorians used 18 different colors.”