Design Confidently, Live Comfortably
| March/April 2005 A Change of Space You Have to Really Love an Old House
I had interior design and construction management experience, and Tom had been a landlord and handyman for many years. We also had substantial encouragement, support, and advice from my stepfather, Charlie, who had restored the Arts and Crafts house where he and my mother live. When our spirits sank and our skill level was insufficient, Charlie was the first to help us through whatever phase had bogged us down. When you buy an old house, you have to be willing to work your way through the struggles. Things are never cut and dried, and they don’t look like textbook diagrams. You need plenty of ingenuity and a bit of daring to solve problems. Salvaging materials and using them in new ways becomes an art.  Mostly, you have to understand and accept that everything will take longer than you expect. It’s important to just go with the flow. If sleeping in a ski cap because the house isn’t yet fully insulated bothers you, or making do without a kitchen gives you fits, then a fixer-upper may not be for you. Liz Strianese and her husband, Tom, live in Beacon, New York, where they own an antiques shop called Relic. |
 |
PHOTOS EXCEPT WHERE NOTED: KAREN TANAKA BEFORE PHOTO: COURTESY OF AUTHOR |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
