My cousin Amy and her husband Ben had just bought a new house in East Hampton. Amy is a senior partner at Price Waterhouse and Ben is a broker on Wall Street, and they wanted a weekend getaway house. After looking for a while, they found this house, which was fairly unremarkable.
They bought the house at the height of the market. They asked their realtor whether they should invest in renovating the house. The realtor told them that since they had bought at the height, it would be at least several years before they made a profit on the house and to just stick to decorating the house with new furniture and painting.
Amy and Ben wanted us to come out to the house and look at it to see what we would suggest as far as doing any decorating, painting, furnishings and lighting replacement. Originally, the plan was just to decorate. However, upon seeing the house, we determined that the house needed more than decoration. What the house sorely needed was some personality and architectural bones. It had none.
After taking the tour, we told Amy and Ben that we felt that the house needed far more than just new furniture. Tim and I told them that we would come up with a plan and a proposal and after a couple of meetings, they gave us the green light to go ahead with a gut renovation and new construction inside of the house.
Upon seeing it the first thing we knew to do was to give it the bone structure and architectural details that it was lacking. Tim and I have been in this business for quite a while, and it’s something that is just instinctual to us. It comes naturally - it also comes with schooling!
The existing interiors were in the shape of an A-frame with vaulted ceilings in both the master bedroom, the main living area, kitchen, great room and then it had regular flat ceilings in the guest bedrooms and the bathrooms.
We talked to our contractor, told him what we were looking for was to give the house some history, and asked him if he could find some OLD solid beams. Our contractor found beams from a 200-year-old barn in Pennsylvania. The beams are fabulous; they added authentication, gave the house an immediate history, and bone structure that the house desperately needed.
We found from one of our many vendors custom wallpaper for the entrance that really made a bold statement. There were no existing ceiling lights in the house, so it was very dark and relied totally on lamps, floor lamps and table lamps. We had the electrician come in and rewire the whole house, adding recessed lighting in every room, especially the great room.
We added different colors, accessories, lamps & original paintings. We had a New York artist bring several paintings out to the house - we feel as good designers that having real art, whether it’s from an emerging or established artist, is very important for the interior of the homes that adds a level of taste and sophistication. The art gives a sense of personality to the home for the homeowners and to their guests. This is our objective: to make the house look like a reflection of the homeowners’ individual personalities and a reflection of their tastes.
Lastly, we did end up proving the realtor wrong! The guys sold the house one year after we finished the renovations, and not only did they make a handsome profit on the house, but the sale price paid in full the cost of all the renovations! Proving once again that we do know best when it comes to maximizing the potential resale of a home!
