Overwhelmed

When we bought this house we knew there was a certain amount of work we would have to do before winter set in, First we had some windows that had to be replaced, some of the guttering was shot or missing and the siding over the garage had been damaged. Inside all the carpets would have to go to be replaced by wood floors and, to make more space, because 5000 square feet is just not enough, there were closets to be taken out (I know that it is impossible to believe that a gal can have too many closets but even Imelda Marcos would have trouble buying enough shoes to fit in here) plus there was the decorating stuff to be undertaken: paneling to be ripped off the walls, wallpaper to be stripped from three rooms and a hallway and the "Muenster Cheese" decor in the master suite, which covered every wall, door, architrave and baseboard, would have to be painted over.

We figured we would make the outside waterproof before tackling the interior projects. But of course things never run off a slate roof, as they say in Dutch, so we are working backwards, doing all the stuff we don't need to do while waiting for the windows which at this rate will probably be installed during a three-day snowstorm in January. In July, just before our first houseguests left, the contractors started work tearing out the panelling, taking down the mirrored closet in the bedroom and shortening the hall closet to make a bookcase. Then they painted over the oil-blue interiors of the remaining closets with a fresh coat of clean white matte and left for their vacation.

Koen and Verity stripped wallpaper and pulled up two carpets before they left and we ordered 1500 sq' of pre-finished wood flooring. Sick of the cheese effect, I painted the walls of the master bedroom and dressing room a calm blue shade and the ceiling, trim and doors a brilliant white.

Renovations or where it all started

This is our new house that I fell in love with months before we even considered moving from our old place. I fell in love with it despite the fact it was twice the size we needed, twice as far from Steve's office as our previous home, needed new roof, windows, gutters, had termite damage, rot and the electrical line to the house had completely corroded.

Our previous house needed nothing doing to it. We had just remodeled the kitchen and it was completely fantastic. But this house is original and when I looked at the photos on the realtor's website, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I had a sick feeling in my stomach. That's how much I wanted it and how afraid I was that someone else would buy it and treat it badly.

This is a custom design by Andrew Geller, famous for his beach houses on Long Island and Connecticut. Although this house isn't really on the beach, it's not too far from one either. The house was period 1968 when we moved in and the challenge has to be to update it gently so we don't destroy the integrity of the design. This blog is going to be the easiest way to document all the repairs and renovations we are making to our new house.

When we bought the house we knew that there was a lot of work to be done but we figured we would have a month or so to get the big stuff out of the way before we moved in. How wrong were we? We moved in the afternoon of June 29, the previous owner finished her move that same morning. We had guests arriving in four days so we just cleaned, cleaned some more, threw away debris we found in cupboards in the kitchen and bathrooms and made the place look as welcoming as possible.
After the guests left we set about taking carpets up, stripping wallpaper, removing closets and paneling on closets and occasionally writing about the process...