The porch with beckoning white rockers, landscaping and equally neat, well-tended neighboring properties give this Lake Charles Cleveland Street home plenty of charm and curb appeal.

Inside, visitors see a setting equally as neat and charming. Floors shine. Walls are adorned with mainly framed duck prints and stamps — for now.

Owners are Michael and Jeannie Savant Ward. He is the son of Ted and Kathryn Ward. She is daughter of Gene and Cathryn Savant. He grew up in Lake Charles. She, in Indian Village. The couple — virtually newlyweds — married in October last year, but suspect their paths crossed as kids because both families spent time at camps in Nevils Bluff.

Michael comes from a family known for its appreciation of distinctive, lasting architecture. His grandparents were Mr. and Mrs. A.O. Fontenot. The home they lived in was donated to the Catholic Youth Organization and stood where the McElroy Quirk offices are now. It was said to be inspired by Rudolph Valentino’s Hollywood Spanish Mission style home, according to Lloyd Barras, author of Early Homes of Lake Charles.

The home at 1010 Reid Street, on last year’s Calcasieu Historical Preservation Society Palm Sunday Tour, was built for Michael’s grandmother, Agnes Fontenot Ward. Michael lived in an apartment behind the house next door, he said, when the almost 1,500 square foot, two-bedroom, one-bath home became available for purchase in 2001. His family had lived in the area. He liked the style and character of the house and of the older neighborhood.

The house was built in 1941. Exterior walls are double shiplap. Interior walls are doubled. The attic fan still works. A “matching house” house was built next door. The homes were for sisters.

“It’s well-built,” Michael said. “It survived Hurricanes Audrey and Rita.”

However, the house had been a rental property and had not been remodeled since the 1970s when Michael purchased it.

“At the time I was watching Home and Garden TV shows and thought, I can do that.”

“That” took some time and included updating the electrical and plumbing; the bottom of the house was sprayed with foam insulation; a front porch was added; the roofline was changed; the height of the kitchen ceiling was raised to the original 11-foot height; original wood floors were sanded and refinished; doors and windows were replaced; eight-inch baseboards and crown molding was added, sheetrock was finished; and the original wood trim, walls and ceilings were painted.

Painting is Michael’s trade. He never finished painting a portion of one of the room’s ceiling, adding veracity to the adage, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.”

One of the time-consuming makeover tasks was pulling back the many layers of the kitchen floor. More than one layer of wood subflooring, black adhesive and linoleum had been used since the house was constructed.

“There was probably this much difference between the living room floor height and the kitchen floor height,” said Michael, holding his thumb and index finger about four inches apart. “It took two weeks coming home every single night after work and working until midnight or one in the morning. I must have pulled out four pounds of screws. I knew there was a wood floor under there.”

Michael had never refinished wood floors before, but when he found out Larry Rayon was tied up for months, he decided to try it. He has no regrets. However, he did ask a lot of questions before beginning the job.

Hurricane Rita took out the original garage and greenhouse. Now the home has a standby generator, two-car carport, work/storage space and 25-foot-by-25-foot back deck where the Wards entertain.

The Wards married in October of last year and have survived their first remodel as a couple: The bathroom was gutted down to the dirt. He was thinking clawfoot tub. She was thinking spa-like walk-in shower to make the house easier for aging-in-place. The walk-in shower made sense.

Both Jeannie and Michael like traditional style. However, she likes to spice things up with a few modern pieces and splashes of color.

“This place still looks a little like a duck camp on the inside,” said Michael.

He says this because he has several framed duck stamp prints and other Elton Louviere signed prints are displayed.

“When I was in high school, he would let me come and just sit and watch him work,” said Michael, as long as I didn’t make any noise.”

Michael and Jeannie like collecting art and sea creature figurines from their travels.

“I’ve been sneaking my things in little by little,” Jeannie said.

Some of Michael’s ancestors hail from Galveston – the Pauls — and they built a couple of the historical homes that still stand. A small curio filled with keepsakes in the Ward home survived the 1900 Galveston hurricane. It’s filled with vintage photos, bronzed baby shoes, antique silver mesh purses and a frame filled with something that is hard to make out.

Michael flips it around. A typed description explains. Ancestors visited Washington DC in the 1800s and were entertained by President Van Buren. When they departed, the president pinned a cluster of Johnny Jump-Ups to their infant’s cap. That was Michael’s great, great, great grandmother. Catherine Flood drew and embroidered the flowers on the cap ribbon and it was put away as a keepsake. Catherine Flood passed it to Florence Mimmie Schryver Vedder. She passed it to Katharine Vedder Pauls. She passed it to Katharine Pauls Walker in 1975.

The Wards love being home. However, they both admit they have much left to do.

“When you have a home, it’s a job that’s never done,” Michael said.

The Wards say what makes a house a home is making changes that make it their own and it’s not so much the house, but the people who live in the house that make it home. They don’t like debt. Last year they chose to take three cruises rather than remodel the kitchen. Jeannie dreams of a retirement sailing the seas like some of the couple’s friends. In the meantime, Jeannie expresses a serene contentment with the charming house on Cleveland and her plan to add touches little my little.

“Michael was a bachelor until we married and this was his palace, deservedly so,” she said. “I don’t think he realized just how beautiful it is.”

“We’re happy here. We have everything we need,” Jeannie Ward said.

The Ward home at 1010 Reid St. was originally built in 1941. The Wards updated the home by adding a front porch