Adam Delaney spent four years restoring his late 19th century Queen Ann style home on Normal Street in Ypsilanti. The house is one of six homes on this Sunday's Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation Home Tour.

Janet Miller | For AnnArbor.com

Editor's note: The date of the home tour has been corrected in this article.

When Adam Delaney purchased the late 19th century Ypsilanti house in 2004, the plaster walls were crumbling, the front porch was sagging and the electrical wiring was gone. The day his daughter was born, the water pipes burst. Two-thirds of the windows were broken.

And then there was the matter of the squatters who lived inside the boarded up house. But after four years of work on the 1,800-square-foot house, most of it his own, Delaney has turned the blighted Queen Anne style house that sits atop a hill at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Normal Street into the great dame it once was.

Delaney’s house, along with five others, will be part of the 34th annual Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation Home Tour on Sunday, held in conjunction with the three-day Ypsilanti Heritage Festival, that kicks off Friday.

With two towering maple trees standing sentinel, framing the front of the this painted lady, Delaney’s house stands proud: It’s exterior color -- three coordinated shades of muted reds accented with two tones of cream trim -- make it impossible to miss. The existing front gable stood out too much compared to the simple first floor, Delaney said. “It stood all alone up there. It looked lonely.”

The arches and a series of cedar fish scales that tie in with the decorative flourishes on the gable were added.

Adam Delaney replaced most of the wrap-around porch on his restored Queen Anne-style home, keeping some of the sturdy posts but adding wooden arches to create detail and interest.

Janet Miller | For AnnArbor.com

Inside, he kept the two-apartment configuration, but added a third story loft that he uses as his bedroom.

Delaney gutted the house, adding new electrical and plumbing and moving and repairing old plaster walls. He removed and stripped the wood trim on the first floor and replaced the warped and stained wood floor in the upstairs bathroom with tile, moving the claw foot tub to the downstairs bath and installing a shower. He remodeled the kitchen with new cabinets and floor and added a small peninsula for casual dining.

Delaney wasn’t shy when it came to color. He chose interior colors as vibrant as the exterior: A metallic plum/grey for the small living room, a tan with a hint of apricot for the music room and a dusty green for the kitchen.

The hardest part of the do-it-yourself project was living in the space while he was working on it, said Delaney, who owns two concrete companies. “I had to keep moving my living quarters throughout the house and run a business out of it at the same time,” he said.

Delaney has tried to piece together the history of the house: It was probably moved from another location to its current site. While the foundation is a continuous piece -- indicated it was built for the house -- the plaster in the walls is from different time periods: The walls in the front section are made from horse plaster (yes, horse hair was used) and lathe while more modern plaster methods were used for the walls in the rear of the house. Delaney figures an addition was made when it was moved to the new site.

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If you go

The 34th annual Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation Home Tour will be held Sunday from noon-5 p.m., with advance tickets costing $10. For more information, go to http://yhf.org/?page_id=29.

The houses on the tour include:

• 505 N. Hamilton, an 1880s Queen Anne that was occupied at the turn of the century by the family that started the Michigan Ladder Company, which remains business. There has been extensive work done, including a new porch, rebuilt chimney and new mechanicals.

• 121 N. Huron, an 1870s Italian villa-style house with tower that was once home to Michigan’s first college-educated dentist. It has a front gable with hipped hoods. Inside, there’s a parquet floor of walnut, oak, and cherry in the dining room along with a circular staircase.

• 7 N. Normal, an 1848 Greek Revival in the style of Antebellum south with Italianate details added later. It was once the residence of P. Roger Cleary, found of Cleary College.

• 35 S. Summit, a house with many lives: It is an 1842 house that was transformed into a Gothic Revival style house in 1859 with changes in 1865 that turned it into a Queen Anne. It has a tower, verandas and elaborate wooden gingerbread.

• 314 Hiawatha, a 1950s split level ranch house. Not your typical stop on a tour of historic homes -- although mid-century modern houses are nearing 60 years old -- this fixer upper has been completely remodeled and furnished with contemporary, mid-century and Danish modern pieces.

• 32 S. Normal, Adam Delaney’s elegantly restored Queen Anne style house at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Normal Street (see story).