The Grand Reveal

The Big House in a Small City is ready for her closeup.

It’s ready. It’s been a winter-long project and I will admit I am tired. But it’s ready. My contractor cleaned out the last of his tools yesterday.

The Big House in a Small City is transformed.

If you’re new here, let me give you a quick recap:

This very large 1800s home in the city of the hills, Oneonta, New York, was looking pretty tired when I first saw her. Here’s the old listing. Wallpaper was peeling off the walls. Faded and stained wall to wall carpeting covered the floors. The kitchen? Nope. Just nope.

A remarkable landing in the hall upstairs had been chopped up to add a closet that this house did not need. Storage is not a problem.

But - the family that had owned this place for fifty plus years clearly loved it. The old woodwork was painted, but intact. The pocket doors downstairs were perfect. The systems were updated and all the original windows had storms and screens.

I fell in love. And it was languishing on the market. It called to me.

So I put my nervousness in storage, bought it, and brought in a trusted contractor friend to help bring this old house back to life.

The long, cold winter days saw him taking the place apart, and, as is always the case with renovation, the midway point had the house looking far worse than it was when I bought it. That’s always scary.

BUT - the house began to breathe. The wood floors under the carpets were in great shape. A fresh coat of paint in the giant pantry transformed that room into an amazing space. Even the hilariously small downstairs bath proved to have some character and packed a visual punch.

The kitchen? Amazing what new cabinets and an updated floor can do.

The downstairs room are huge and SO bright. And once the windows were cleaned (at least on the inside) they positively gleam.

The bedrooms are big and bright. Even the shockingly large closet upstairs with the odd shape (this house is the first ‘W’ shaped house I’ve ever seen, and there are angles in closets that are unique) turned out to be amazing. If I were a kid, I’d be playing in there.

And that dark, panelled office over the garage got a new life, too.

But for me, the star of the whole show is still that upstairs landing. Remember?

Look at her now!!

The symmetry of the original design, the light, the curves…ooh la la. If I made this place home, I’d have a reading area up there and that’s where you’d find me most nights.

But I love my old farmhouse home, and this gorgeous old city place is going to be home to someone else.

There’s an open house on Mar 9, 11-2. Here’s the new listing.

I expect there will be a lot of visitors - many of them neighbors interested to see what’s happened in there this winter. But I hope one of the people who walks in is as smitten as I have been. This house is easy to love. And she’ll love you back. You can feel it.