In 2011 the real renovation journey began. We have lived in the house for a little over a year, during this time we learned about its strengthens & weaknesses so we had a better understanding of what we needed to do. Most people start renovations with the interior but we did the reverse, we started with the exterior. The front porch with its slightly unobstructed views of the Hudson River was the most important room in the house. ( There is a light pole in front of the house) It is where we did most of our entertaining, and living.
The view of the Hudson River from the porch.
The journey begins with these doors.
The Front Doors.
They are beautiful, arched, hand carved doors from the 1850's. It's the first piece of furniture that greets our guests. We knew that we could not trust them to any restorer. It took us months to find someone that came highly recommended.
We handed them over for a few months to be restored. When they were finally given back to us, we were in shock surprised to see that they were hardly touched. We were extremely frustrated, annoyed and disappointed. We spent a lot of money and the doors looked the same. This experience taught a lot. We became more cautious with the people we trusted with the house and we took the actual renovations into our own hands.
