I don’t know when it all started. I just always loved old houses. In 1967, my family moved from a 2 bedroom apartment in the New York suburbs to a pre-war brick colonial in Westchester County, NY. While my sister was busy hanging Rolling Stones posters in her room – I was picking out dresser scarves for my bedroom furniture. She selected 1960s style maple furniture for her room – remember, they all had that laminate top – eeew – and I got my grandmother’s bedroom set. She was rock and roll and I was glee club. I’m sure you get the picture…
The first house I ever owned was a cute Victorian – of course in need of a makeover! – in quaint Newtown Borough. Newtown – if you don’t know, is a lovely historic town in Bucks County, PA. The town has always reminded me of a sweeter, gentler time in our past. It is a place where people hang out on their front porches and where you can walk to the movie theatre, talk to the postman, visit the hardware store – and everybody knows your name, your kids’ names, your dog’s name… It is comforting stuff – and to me, that sense of place, of belonging to a community – well it is just priceless.
In 1980, that house became my laboratory. I bought “how-to” books galore. There was a woman carpenter in town, who also worked at Newtown Hardware House. She gave classes in carpentry – for women only – in her basement. The class learned how to use power tools – hey, a food processor is a power tool – sharp blades, noisy – so why be afraid of a circular saw??? We all had projects to make – I made a blanket chest with ogee feet. I was so proud of myself.
The first project was refinishing the floors. They had been painted brown – and we discovered that they were a lovely pumpkin pine. We moved on to finishing the third floor – which involved running electric lines, plasterwork, and reopening the stairwell to the third floor. Once that was done – we had a stunning open stairway for 3 floors – and I realized that I was hooked on this makeover stuff!
Our next project was the kitchen – and since we were still new to the remodeling process – there were lots of mistakes along the way. We didn’t plan for such an extended renovation time, and with a new baby, full time jobs, a limited budget and two clueless adults – well it was simply miraculous that we were able to complete the job. For over two months we had no running water in the kitchen. At the time, my husband worked as a medical products salesman. His product was sterile IV bags of water. We had bags of water tacked all over the kitchen walls – the baby’s bottle needed to be heated up – and the only bath was on the second floor. The kitchen ended up looking like an ICU ward. Funny now, but it was pretty awful then. But still – I loved the process. I would like awake at night designing the kitchen, thinking of color schemes, planning the next project. I was hooked.
The last major project we undertook in that house was removal of the asbestos siding. We had put the house on the market – I think it was 1986. We had painted the house, but still – according to the realtor – the house did not have curb appeal. The asbestos siding was hiding the true beauty of the house and the width and length of the asbestos shingles did not complement the mass of the house. I knew there was clapboard siding under the asbestos – so in a moment of insanity – I called the realtor, took the house off the market, and grabbed a crowbar. By the time my husband came home, the yard was covered with asbestos shingles. I had used that crowbar to remove about the first 5 feet of siding – and the clapboard was peeking out from underneath – calling to me!! Needless to say – the husband is now the ex – but we finished the entire house that summer. The transformation was incredible. I used the knowledge gained from the carpentry class to make corbels and brackets for the front porch, an adorable paint scheme set off the architectural details of the house – and a domestic goddess had been born. We put the house back on the market – at a higher price – and Voila! – it sold!
