The Cottage
Each Design story is unique but this one is my own…….life changes and you have to know how to go “with the flow”. It was 2001 and I had what my family called the 7 year itch. After completely renovating a 1918 Sears and Roebuck house from top to bottom it was time to move on. Our house sold quickly and a deal for a new residence fell through in a bidding war. Suddenly, there we were with four dogs and nowhere to go. I thought,” this can’t be happening”. Truly, there were no houses on the market. It was dry as a bone. But this one quirky .com property kept jumping out at me. I told my husband …..He leaped on board and said, “ Let’s go see”. We couldn’t reach our realtor, the listing agent or the property owner. No deterrent for Jeff. We were off, trespassing adventure abound.
It was a mess. A house, untouched for 40 + years built at the turn of the century with a 1914 addition, frozen in time. Jeff turned to me and said,” honey you can do it”. I said, “Seriously do you want to live in a tent until the renovations are over?” But the majestic 3.5 acres pulled at our heart strings. Mature trees nestled along the Delaware Canal, the long winding driveway. I could work with that.
And work we did, a gut job, with some very unsatisfactory findings. Money spent that would never be seen. Twenty years later, this is still home.
