Our River House

Due to the countless hours and dedication put into our rehabbed 1839 farmhouse along the Hudson River in Upstate New York, we found it necessary to share the realities of buying and rehabbing a fixer-upper. Throughout our lives, we have had the pleasure of living in numerous old homes throughout Vermont and New York. Our home in a quaint Hamlet in New York has brought us the opportunity to make countless new and exciting memories, many of which are thanks to the tight-knit community. After less than six months of renovations starting in January 2015, we finished a majority of the renovations. Since then, we have been adding finishing touches to our home, making new updates, finding antiques and collectibles, trying new cuisine, and enjoying all our quaint hamlet has to offer. We look forward to sharing our experiences over the years, Upstate living at its finest, and the generations of design incorporated in the renovation of our Hudson River home. Follow our 6-month journey below:

Our Little Slice of Paradise (Taken from the Hudson River)

Making the House a Home

Prior to moving to our home on the Hudson, we lived in a bustling village in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Our home, pictured below was a large 1847 16-room colonial home. The home featured an in-law living area, a full walk-in attic, and a three-car garage (although they were made to fit horse-drawn carriages). The house was situated directly next to the local village grocery store. This was a blessing as there was no need for grocery lists as we could simply walk the cart full of groceries home and go pick something up within a minute if we ran out. Other than grocery stores and brick-and-motor stores, there was not much in the Northeast Kingdom if you were not outdoorsy. We were surrounded by ski mountains and lakes, yet were two hours from Burlington, VT which is the largest and most active city in Vermont.

Living in the Northeast Kingdom, we were accustomed to cold, blustery days – some reaching -30. We knew that we wanted to find a place that had milder winters and was closer to major cities, yet maintained the same small-town charm. The Northeast Kingdom will always hold a special place in our hearts – where Emily and Rick met, married, and started their lives together, where Elisabeth was born and raised, and one of the best places to create a home! Yet, after years of looking throughout the Northeast, we found a place that had some of the same qualities that made Vermont our home, but had milder winters and was close to everything. We settled on a smaller farmhouse along the Hudson River in NY, close to everything (25 minutes to the capital, 2 hours to NYC, 2.5 hours to Boston), yet still undeveloped and quaint.

Moving to New York

After months of looking for houses in New York and finally finding one, we were beyond ready to start making it a home! After the trials and ups and downs of making the five-hour move while renovating our 1839 farmhouse on the tight six-month timeline as described in later posts, we could not wait to add color and life throughout the house. Bridging the new and the old, we were able to cater to each room to complement our gorgeous Hudson River views using a limited budget and our shared love for antiques and collectibles. Soon enough, the antiques and decorations combined with the mountain of memories, new and old, brought much-needed life to the house. Since 2015, new additions have been added to every room and our decorating styles have shifted so stay tuned.

Whoever said less is better does not know us or our design style. For years, our motto has been “if it brings you joy display and share it” and despite the move, this has remained true. Minimalists we are not! Given this philosophy, most if not all of the furniture and knickknacks throughout the house tell a story or are sentimental. We look forward to sharing our journey to making this house a home!

The posts in this section are listed in chronological order from 2019 to the first-walk through in 2015. Take time to view our progress from our first walk-through until today. Welcome to Our Home!

Our House in 2019 (Minus Our Evolving Projects and Updates)

In order to adhere to our motto, we have constantly been making improvements and adding new antiques and collectibles that bring us joy. On the five-year anniversary of finishing a majority of the renovations, we thought it was time to share our home. It took a lot of love and hard work, but it was well worth it. A lot of furniture and decorations have come and gone, yet the memories made here will last a lifetime!

Entryway

Living Room

Library/ Media Room

Kitchen/ Eat-in Dining Room

Mud Room/ Den

Downstairs Bathroom

Upstairs Guest Bathroom

Guest Bedroom

Elisabeth’s Bedroom

Home Office

Master Suite – Bedroom

Master Suite – Bathroom

Our First Christmas in New York

DECEMBER 29, 2015

Crazy to think that almost a year ago we put an initial offer on the house and have been living in New York for seven months! Elisabeth has finished her first semester of college at the University at Albany and we have been settling in quite nicely. This Christmas we are excited to be celebrating the new house and the hard work and manual labor that has made this house a home!

At this point, all the big projects have been completed – from the patio, tool shed, new roof, to the decoration of each nook-and-cranny. All the boxes have been unpacked and all that is left to do is enjoy our new home! The house is decked out for Christmas and we look forward to what the new year will bring.

Rehabbing our Hudson River Home

June 08, 2015

Let the Renovations Begin

From January to June of 2015, the electrical, plumbing, installation, and painting were completed. Below you will see the daily to weekly transformation of our house and the realities of rehabbing a fixer-upper. At the time, we were still living in Northern Vermont, so we would make a 5 hour trip to New York every weekend to work on the house. Despite working full-time in Vermont, a majority of the work we were able to do with the help of family and friends!

It Is Getting There – June 2015

Our house is turning into a home! At this point, besides putting up woodwork and painting some walls, all that is left is small projects. Due to our inability to find good and affordable workers in New York, we hired construction workers from Vermont to come down to do the roof and build the tool shed. Due to our expansive views of the river, we decided to have a stone patio installed on the side of the house. We hired local landscape contractors, Vasto & Son, to do the patio which houses the grill and a fire-pit made by Rick. The patio came out fantastic and serves as our favorite spot for summertime cookouts and fall s’mores. Since we got such a good price on the house, we decided to install a six-person therapeutic hot tub that nicely fits on our newly built patio. Nothing beats sitting in the hot tub looking at the passing barges. We had an above-ground swimming pool put in shortly after. We decided on an above-ground pool, as an in-ground would have been extremely expensive due to the backyard being all shale making digging costly. Our home, like all of the houses in the hamlet, is on a well and like many of them has water issues. Therefore we have to be careful when showering, doing dishes, doing laundry, and filling the pool/ hot tub. Once both the pool and hot tub were installed, we hired a water tanker to fill both. It is hard to believe with living on the Hudson River we have a water issue!

Besides the outside of the house, the pantry and coat closets in the den have been roughed in, now all that needs to be installed is the doors. Instead of putting new drywall up for the ceilings in the den and library, we decided to install corrugated steel roofing. This addition was cost-effective and brought an industrial twist to the decor of the given rooms. Most of the boxes are unpacked and for the most part, all the rooms are livable (at least for now).

May 2015

It has been a little over a month since we have been living full-time in New York. Our house in Vermont sold, so we have been busy packing up one house and unpacking at another. With our house sold in Vermont, we hired a moving company to bring the bulk of our furniture – which took 3 loads. We had a terrible experience with the moving company, seeing as the initial quote they gave was 3 times less than what they actually charged. When we questioned them about the change in price, they threaten to dump our stuff in a field in the middle of Vermont. On the day of delivery, the movers quickly unpacked the moving vehicle and in the process ruined or broke various pieces. The movers put a finger through a very expensive Hudson River painting that was given to us and also dropped a large antique dollhouse breaking pieces of the roof. We were beyond happy to see them back down the driveway.

Here Comes Spring – April 2015

Weekend of April 11th

We were trying to decide whether or not April 19th would be our final day in Vermont, we decided yes. That meant that we would work non-stop and if we were not working, we would be sleeping! Rick transferred with the Plumbers Union to a job in Malta, NY in March. Therefore, he was able to work on the house after work and on weekends in the weeks that followed. We were left in Vermont to pack in the freezing temperatures, coming down every weekend to join him.

During the week of April 11th, we arrived on Thursday to find my bathroom roughed in, plywood on the kitchen counters, and more sheetrock up. During our prior trip, we hired painters to paint four of the interior rooms. Upon arrival, we found that the painters never showed up to paint, which was a problem as the moving trucks were coming in less than a week. Due to this, we took on the task of painting and cleaning the entire weekend. Emily painted four rooms and started to unpack some boxes. Painting in the dark with temporary lighting made for an interesting paint job. Elisabeth spent the majority of the weekend mopping/shining the floors and washing the walls and woodwork. Rick worked on odd jobs (got the closets roughed in) and finished Elisabeth’s bathroom for the most part. We slept in the house for the first time on Sunday on two blowup mattresses in what would end up being Elisabeth’s bedroom. We worked every night until midnight with makeshift lighting and headlamps. It may not seem like a lot, but we got so much done this weekend.

Weekend of April 4th

Everybody has been on overhaul as we are nearer to our move-in date. Rick has remained at the house to work on the plumbing, sheetrock, and pretty much anything else. We arrived on Friday to find the kitchen cabinets up and appliances in. Most of the outer walls were sheetrocked and Rick had started the plumbing. The electrical was finished (at least we thought so). We ran into major problems with the electricians we hired due to their quality of work and inability to do the job we hired them for. We learned in this project who not to hire! We really missed the fantastic contractors we used in the Northeast Kingdom, they could teach these contractors a few things about quality work.

That weekend the trees were taken down in the backyard. We hired excavators that were recommended to level the yard and cut the trees, and we were billed 3 times higher than the original quote. Once the excavators dug out the cement patio at the back of the house, water damage was discovered which was expected.

Time to Rebuild – February & March 2015

Amidst a very cold and snowy winter, we began our weekend trips with U Hauls packed with furniture from Vermont. We began putting blue board, insulation, and sheetrock up.

Rick was in New York and became sick for the first time in years. We had him go to the local walk-in clinic, where he was told he had bronchitis. With him sick in bed, we made our way down that weekend. We went to Home Depot and Lowes to price out numerous items. Rick met us at the house on Saturday and we began putting up insulation. With the help of family and friends, we were able to insulate much of the downstairs.

For the kitchen, instead of paying the astronomical prices of buying new, we decided to buy a never-used set of kitchen cabinets from Wright’s Auction House in Derby, VT. One of Elisabeth’s former teachers and close family friends painted the wooden kitchen cabinets in Vermont. We then lugged our kitchen cabinets in the first U-Haul load.

We needed to make the house livable, so we could at least sleep and use the bathroom there. Therefore, the goal was to get one of the bedrooms and bathrooms operating. We were excited at the prospects of getting rid of the makeshift toilet in the garage and becoming slightly more civilized! When the time came, Elisabeth’s bedroom and the upstairs bathroom were ready to move into.

Demolition Weekend – January 2015

The first few days of the renovation consisted of the second-best part of buying fixer-uppers – DEMOLITION! In moving to New York, we were lucky to have been surrounded by family and friends who helped throughout the renovation. For the first stages of renovation, we stayed with family who lived in the area.

Our new house is where we celebrated Rick’s 50th birthday with no heat, electricity, or water. This has been one of the coldest winters in recent years here in New York. Yet, despite this, we made the most of the weather and enjoyed every second of his birthday. The first few weeks were filled with a lot of father-daughter bonding, consisting of demolition. Emily was thankful to be in New York, as the Northeast Kingdom was having thirty below temperatures at the time.

Here starts our journey to making this Hudson River house our home!

A True Fixer-Upper

JANUARY 10, 2015

In October of 2014, we put an offer on a major fixer-upper in New York, receiving the deed and keys in early January of 2015. The house is an 1839 farmhouse that was converted into a three-family apartment. We paid $28,000 for the house, so you can imagine the work that needed to be done. Below starts our journey of buying our fixer-upper and rehabbing the house into a home!

Before

Since the house was converted to a three-family a couple decades before we bought it, the layout and purposes of the rooms changed. Below, are the pictures from our first walk-through of the house with what the rooms became.

Outside of the House