Dave Muylle and his father Louis, in a scene from Craftsman Style
Craftsman Style: The Movie, a new documentary by local filmmaker Shane Hagedorn, tells the story of a local veteran contractor turned citizen-filmmaker, and his two-year journey to restore a house on Lansing’s Eastside. The film had its Lansing premiere September 18 at LCC’s Dart Auditorium, and over 400 people were in attendance. The documentary provides a detailed account of the rebuilding work done by Eastside restorationist Dave Muylle and his fellow craftsmen at 124 Regent Street. This same house was featured on Eastside home tours organized by the Allen Neighborhood Center three years in a row.
Best described as “This Old House” for regular people, Craftsman Style explores how home restoration provides a better model for home construction in urban America, one in which wonderful old houses are not simply torn down and replaced but are restored to their former glory, a practice that saves valuable natural resources while also honoring the past. The film was an Official Selection in the 2009 Muskegon Film Festival and has been entered into many other film festivals around the state and country.
Copies of the DVD are available for $15 at the Allen Neighborhood Center. All proceeds from DVD sales benefit the Allen Neighborhood Center. If you have any questions, please call Meg Sparling at (517) 999-3921 or email her at megs@allenneighborhoodcenter.org.
THE MAKING of CRAFTSMAN STYLE
In 1999 I was working on a building directly across the street from the house featured in Craftsman Style. Looking across the street, I saw all the signs of a drug house (many different people making brief visits was the best clue). With the help of the Lansing Police, the house was shut down and deemed uninhabitable due to its terrible condition. Because I had a financial interest in the neighborhood, I thought the best thing to do was to buy the house myself, so I contacted the owner and made a deal on it.
In 2003 I finally got started on the restoration of the house at 124 Regent Street. Around this time a nice young couple, Shane and Stacy Hagedorn, moved in next door. Besides having a real job as a security officer for Sparrow Hospital, Shane is also an independent filmmaker. The more we talked, the more excited we got about making a documentary film about the work I was doing at 124 Regent Street.
We decided to portray the restoration of the house in close detail, including the work done by a number of skilled local craftsmen. We also set out to explore the theme of sustainability, an idea that I break it into three components:
- Craftsmanship. Using the best quality materials installed in the best way possible creates a level of quality that is easy to maintain and will outlast the cheap stuff. Craftsmanship also includes careful design and thinking about how material selections impact the environment.
- Restoration. When it comes to our homes, fashion and style often dictate that we throw out the old and install the new. When this happens the original energy it took to build the old part, a window for instance, is tossed in the dump. The energy it took to cut down the tree, transport it to the mill, run the saw, and then transport the window to the site is known as embedded energy. Restoration saves this embedded energy by refurbishing and reusing the original parts.
- Community. When we think of sustainability we typically think of buildings, land, solar panels, and so on. Sustainability also relies on the interest and energy of people who together value buildings and places enough to properly care for them so future generations can use them.
As a longtime contractor and first-time filmmaker, it was interesting to compare the work of making this film to the actual work involved in the restoration of the house. They are alike in many ways. Both are a step-by-step process. Each has the ultimate aim of producing a product that people will enjoy and perhaps buy. Color, proportion, rhythm, and flow are concepts important to both efforts. Planning is important. Scheduling people to show up at a certain place with the right tools at a certain time to do a certain thing is critical to both activities. Both are creative efforts. In the end neither a restored house nor a film are perfect. Many hours were spent on both of these projects, trying to get everything just right. Finally, in both endeavors we eventually had to say, “That’s our best, we’re done.”
– David Muylle, Producer
Lansing, Michigan
2009