My Hudson Valley Villa

I've always wondered, who would ever build a house like this?  I've done a lot of research on the original owner, Mary E. J. Reed.  Why did she want this property and this house?  Was it just an investment property to her and her husband?  Or did they really enjoy living on the property? Mary's maiden name was Mary Everett Jennings.  Her father was Peter S. Jennings and her stepmother was Alice P. F. Jennings.  Mary's father helped her acquire property in the Bungalow section of Harmon where the house is situated.   Mary's half-brother, Richard Dudley Jennings, married society heiress Irene Mae Parks where they lived together at Hearthstone Castle on the Tarrywhile estate in Danbury, CT.  Mary's father, Peter S. Jennings, was the president of the Hildreth Varnish Company  making ready-mixed house paint which at the turn of the century was a recent invention.  

Restoring and modernizing an old house is a labor of love.  I think it becomes even more so when it is the house you grew up in.  My parents bought the house in 1977 "as is" with only one finished room.  The roof had asphalt shingles with squirrels living in the eaves.  My father put a lot of energy into renovating the house before running out of steam in the late 1980s. I still have memories of my mother using a heat gun to strip paint off solid wood doors.  I ended up living in a big, rambling fixer-upper for most of my life.  It wasn't until my parents were in their 70s that they finally hired an interior designer to refinish their master suite. I had always talked to my father about my dreams for updating their house.  He would always tell me that would be my job when I became the owner.  His intentions were to remain in the house "as-is" until he died.  Unfortunately that became reality. In December 2019, right before the pandemic, my fa...