FACCI DESIGNS: A 1940's Stone House Renovation

Last summer Gene and I stayed at a friend’s farmhouse in Pennsylvania. After spending just a night at their house, I realized I wanted a bigger house.

I want to be able to have friends and family stay over…in a bed and not on an leaky air mattress in my tiny living room. I want to be able to have more than 4 people at my dining table… hell, I want a dining room where I can have a dining table. I love my tiny Woodstock cottage and we always planned on growing old there, but having more space would be kinda nice. I would be able to entertain more, and I really like that idea.

So, the search began. Gene and I were looking for a fixer-upper. We love renovating, it’s what makes us happy and well, it's within our budget.

This past June I was searching online and found a beautiful 2 bedroom stone house built in the 1940’s. Included on the 3 acres, was a 1 bedroom cottage and a garage with an adjacent room. Bonus! More room for more guests.

The photos looked beautiful, but after touring the house and taking a much closer look, we realized it had been neglected and needed a lot of love…definition: work. We made an offer and waited and waited and waited. It was a short sale, which we would find out is anything but short. Well, we closed last week and have already starting the demolition.

The property is just gorgeous, with fruit trees, a stone courtyard, stone paths and steps, some leading to nowhere. A sign on the fence says "Storybook". All 3 units have stone fireplaces. We would later find out a stonemason built it all, a rather vertically-challenged stonemason since all the doorways are very low. :)

We're looking forward to the renovation and I hope you'll follow us on our journey. I’ll be posting before & after photos of all the home projects we plan on doing. They’ll be some DIY’s thrown in there as well. We hope to write our own story book and we hope you'll read it or at least look at the pictures!