Before moving in August 2017 into their nearly 5,000-square-foot home on North Central, Leslie and Paul Lux occupied a larger home in Ladue. Leslie, an interior designer and owner of LPL Interiors, spearheaded that renovation in 2002 and filled the home with treasures old and new: china, tortoise-shell pieces, glassware and, most important mementos salvaged from her late mother's New Orleans home in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

For St. Louis homeowner Cody Woods, creating an “open concept” floor plan was key for an extensive renovation of his Central West End home. The biggest challenge for gutting a home that was originally built in the early 1900s? Converting a structure that was definitely not built to be this open.

Nick Reding is the author of the best-selling book “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town” and a full-time family man. All that and the owner of a piece of rejuvenated Missouri history. With the help of Gary and Donna Meyer of GK Meyer Construction, Reding was able to take what was a dilapidated shack and turn it into an energy-efficient weekend home that would make the journeymen of the era proud.