The Vision of Potential

By Renee Wahlen Tillema

Not everyone has the vision, knowledge or talent to look beyond a first impression. What one person might see as a dilapidated and decrepit old house, another sees as possiblity – a chance to make this house into someone’s home. Mary Neal has that vision and has turned many rundown structures into charming castles.

Mary grew up in the northern Wisconsin town of Spooner. She was the oldest of seven children and described her parents, Eddie and Dorothy Zehm, as “very loving.” Her father was hard-working, full of praise and a local musician. Her mother was also a hard worker and gave everything she had to her family. Mary learned the importance of hard-work and determination at an early age. She met her future husband, Zane, in high school, and they have now been married over 30 years. Zane is a Ph. D. level cancer researcher at the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center and for Roche Madison.

“Early in my married life I found myself supporting a husband as he was working towards his Ph.D., raising three children and having to work hard at it,” Mary said.

The family moved to Cambria 18 years ago as Zane was entering graduate school. They wanted to raise their children in a small town atmosphere and chose Cambria basically because of financial reasons. They wanted to purchase a house without taking out a mortgage, Mary did not want to continue working full-time and Zane needed to devote his time to graduate school. The housing costs of Cambria and its proximity to Madison seemed like the answer.

“Income wise we only had so much money,” Mary said. “So, in our minds we had a certain amount of money and that amount would have to buy a house, and it hardly was much at all.”

The story of their move to Cambria is called “Miracle Monday.” They came to town to look at a house, Mary’s first reaction was, “I won’t live there.” She described the house as full of oily engines and the garage was full of barrels and garbage.

“I got inside and that’s where I completely changed,” she said. “It had an open staircase that I fell in love with. I saw that none of the woodwork had been messed with. All of a sudden the wheels started turning in my head – what could I do to this house?”

Without any money in their pockets, they put in an offer on the house. Zane had restored three Mercedes cars and they had a mobile home. These vehicles went up for sale, and on their “Miracle Monday” all four sold that same day. They had enough money to purchase their new house without a mortgage and enough extra to invest in fixing up this property.

“We moved to town and all we had was a big old red van that had non-working brakes,” Mary said. “I just prayed that we would get to town because it was all we had. But, what this did was bought us a house and we did not have a mortgage payment. We took that small amount of money and put every dime into that house.”

For Mary this was the beginning of her home improvement adventure. She said through that experience she found out what it was like to totally gut out a house, and find out what steps are taken to rebuild it again.

“That first night we were in our house, the ceiling completely fell in on our kitchen table,” Mary said. “I thought, ‘This is great, we put all our money into it and it’s falling apart.’ We were only there one night.”

Mary and Zane have three children, Shawn Neal, Faraday Barnes, and Alecia Neal. All three are now grown and on their own. But, when they first moved to Cambria, every Saturday was the day the entire Neal family would work on their house.

“Sunday on the other hand was our family day,” Mary said. “We would go skiing or camping or whatever. We would work all day Saturday, but Sunday was for the family. Our children have now blessed us with seven grandchildren. I love children and with my work I will stop everything for the children and grandchildren. That’s a biggie.”

So after many hours, months, and even years of sweat equity, their first house was completely renovated and even unrecognizable from what Mary described as “the worst eye-sore in Cambria.” A neighbor approached the Neals about purchasing the house directly across from their own. It needed the same amount of repairs and renovation as the first house, but they took on the challenge.

“At that point we did hire some contractors to do some of the work,” Mary said. “We did half or three-fourths of the work ourselves. Then came the house we live in now. It was in foreclosure and we really didn’t need a big old house, but it was something we thought could be utilized.”

The first house in Cambria was put up for sale and sold almost immediately. The Neals moved into the next house and started renovations all over again. Mary struggled with this move because she didn’t want this big house to become an issue of pride. She prayed for some peace of mind and it came to her in the most unusual way.

“I waited and waited to get that peace that I needed to move in here,” she said. “I came in one day and this chandelier with a pineapple had been put up. A pineapple means a sign of hospitality. We had started foster care in the other house, but it was in this home that the specialized foster care developed. The boys would need their own individualized rooms because of their hardships. Then my daughters needed a place and my mother-in-law needed a place. We had 10 people here and I knew that it was meant to be and we had room for everyone.”

For eight years the Neals were foster parents and during several of those years they opened their home to boys who had nowhere else to go. While she had some very positive experiences as a foster parent and still stays in touch with some of the boys, Mary was “burned-out.” She decided to take all the energy she had put into foster parenting and channel that into the housing ventures. Just as Mary was hitting her stride with the home improvements, Zane was getting overwhelmed. Mary described it as a “natural progression” as she took over the complete responsibilities for the home projects and property management.

They have taken on over 20 different home improvement projects over the years. Some have been bought, renovated and sold; others are rental properties, while others are for sale at this time. They have properties in Cambria, Randolph, Montello, Markesan, Fall River, Portage and Beaver Dam. Mary acts as the general contractor and hires local contractors to complete the work. Her many job duties include, but certainly are not limited to, developing an overview and renovation plan for the project, soliciting bids for the work, scheduling flow-plans for contractors work, pulling building permits and meeting with building inspectors, inspecting the quality of work, developing color schemes for paint, carpet, trim and tile, participating in the painting and cleaning, staging the sale houses, listing homes, managing investment properties and paying the bills.

“I am a not just a professional doing house improvement, I am a working woman out there painting, cleaning and making sure that the yard is finished,” Mary said. “Then I move on to the next house. It’s now my business to do this work and I have all the responsibilities.”

Mary said she is very thankful for the people who have helped her along the way – there have been some people in the trades that have taken the time to encourage Mary, worked with her and shared their knowledge. While she has been learning along with way, Mary has a natural ability to see the potential in a building.

“I always see something that I could do to that house to make it something,” she said. “I look at something that really looks like it should be bulldozed, and think, ‘No, no.’ Let me do this and this and when I’m done with it, it’ll be a nice house. Granted you have to spend money, but that’s not where I come from – I come from the point of view that I’m excited in my mind as to what I can do.”

Mary has a vision with each house, an insight as to what will make that house appealing to someone else. She likes to think of it as looking beyond what is in front of her and turning a house into someone else’s home. There are no shortcuts taken, Mary believes in quality work and said they don’t just do it, they do it right. Not only are they eliminating the local “eye-sore” in the community, these renovations are a win-win situation for everyone. The community has a good-looking house sitting on a lot bringing in tax revenue, which benefits the fire department, schools, and local services. Area contractors are being hired for the work and this benefits the economy. Housing is being provided either through rentals or with the purchase of a renovated home, this draws new people into the communities.

“I enjoy what I’m doing, I enjoy the whole learning perspective,” Mary said. “I enjoy the fact that yes, I am a woman and you know what, men help me, but I make the decisions. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon, or married to a doctor, even though I know that I am, but my credibility is not based on my husband, it’s based on the fact that what I do, I have a passion for. You have to have a passion, a love for whatever it is that you do. I love to look at something decrepit and say, ‘I can do something for you and I can make you a home.’"