The Not-so-Perfect House

Written by Jaqui Lividini

It turns out that buying the house was the easy part.  Everything became so much more complicated at that point.  Our mission was to keep the integrity of the house intact.  It’s a 1901 summer cottage, that at one point, had no electricity or indoor plumbing. Of course, it had been wired and piped before it came into our lives – ditto for the unfortunate 1970’s addition to the first floor.

We bought the house from the great-granddaughter of the original builder/owner, and had promised her that we would restore it to a modern day version of its 1901 self.  I’ve always thought that tearing down a house and building something new was the easy way out.

Boy did we pick the hard way with this one!   First, we started working with an architect, but the process became very cumbersome and the outcome would have been way beyond our budget.  Then the recession hit and the renovation just kept getting put off.