My Hudson River Valley Home
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...