In 2018, Emily was selected as a Chancellor’s Fellow, the first student-athlete to do so, after earning a degree in business. The University quipped in a media release that she jumped at the opportunity.

While a fellow, Emily applied to medical school. “It was interesting because I thought I was going to do consulting, then I wanted healthcare,” says Emily. Her mother, she points out, was a nurse. So was Houston’s.

Funnily enough, Houston was the one to wind up in consulting, working with Deloitte for a couple of years. Then, on July 7, 2018, the couple wed.

He and a partner acquired Sasser Restoration in nearby Whitsett. Houston says they work “in the eye of the storm,” mitigating fire, flood and mold damage for commercial businesses.

In 2023, he found a promising listing on Zillow within blocks of Cone Health System, where Emily, now a fourth-year UNC medical student, was doing a specialized rotation. The Summerses purchased that listing in April that year.

Houston’s family was conveniently nearby in Summerfield. Emily had a sister living in Burlington. 

The house offered ample square footage at 2,550 square feet, even before Julia was born. Baby’s arrival made four; the Summerses owned a sweetly natured brown-and-white Newfoundland-poodle mix named Oliver.

While the bungalow looked great, their “new” one-story home was 90 years old. As their first home, they were keen to know its back story. 

Neighbors believed the house was built for one of two sisters who lived side-by-side and shared a driveway. They didn’t have particulars, nor names, but dated the house to 1935–1939.

No records could be found to support the winsome story about the sisters. The address first appeared in Hill’s Greensboro City Directory by 1936, with Henry Wiseman Kendall listed as owner. (He is likely the same distinguished journalist and newspaper editor who later won multiple honors for journalism.)

A previous renovation had gutted and replaced the kitchen, giving it handsome maple cupboards, double ovens, and a large center island. The original red-oak flooring was restored to a gleaming finish.

They thoughtfully began to make it their own.

Just one look at the home’s curb appeal suggests they intuitively understood exactly how to play to its strengths. With white clapboard replacing aluminum siding, shaker shingles and copper gutters, it has all the elements of a historic bungalow’s best.

Since the Summerses took ownership, the home’s stylish evolution on one of Greensboro’s oldest streets has become obvious. 

“It’s eye-catching,” says a business owner who passes by daily and enjoys watching each tweak and improvement.

“But, you know, it’s a 1930s home,” says Houston, who points out that as great as the house looks now, there were also drawbacks. “There’s no insulation in the exterior walls. There are original windows.”

And that fed other concerns.

In the summertime, their air conditioning is constantly running; in the winter, it’s the heat. Apart from the kitchen, the Summerses have scrutinized almost every other square inch. “We’ve done everything else, like [refining] built-ins and changes to the fireplace.”

Houston points out style details that elevated the front room. He changed the red brick fireplace, creating a neutral, soft-white, plaster-like finish of his own design for the mantle, overmantel and surround. He installed neutral tile to define the hearth.

Original features were kept but enhanced by modifications Houston designed himself. The built-in bookcases in the living room were extended to the ceiling to surround the windows, with added doors below. 

Houston does a walk-through from the living room towards the back of the house. He mentions swinging doors that once closed the living room off from the connecting dining room. At some point, those were removed.

“But everything else [remaining] is original to the home . . . We took the mentality of, ‘I don’t know what it looked like in 1935 when it was built, but let’s imagine what it would look like if we were in 1935 and building.’ What might it have been?”

As with any older home, mysteries presented themselves.