The Search for Home | A Historic Cape

The search for home continues and it is both exhilarating and scary. Exhilarating because we’ve been waiting for this moment for so long… Scary because we have so many balls in the air right we can’t afford to make a mistake. So many things are out of our control, details have to work out, people need to align in order for things to happen for us that it is a challenge to keep cool. So I need to clear my mind and stay focused and organized because that’s when I’m at my best. Although I can’t share the exact home we are considering at the moment, I can share one lovely cottage that unfortunately did not work out for us.

One of the very  first homes we fell in love with during our search was a cute little Colonial cottage in downtown Northampton. When I say ‘colonial’ I almost mean it in the literal sense. Built in the early 1700s, the house is one of the oldest in town (so we’re told). We were also told we’re crazy to even consider it but I was smitten with the exterior, the sense of history and well, frankly, it’s location – walking distance to restaurants and Smith College. What I had not fully realized was the price to pay for owning such a sweet slice of history. By price I do not mean the actual price (the house was priced fairly and within our budget), but the structural aspects inherent to a three-century old cottage of modest means. The interiors were lovely, and I particularly loved the large dining room fireplace, the original wooden beams and the overall sense of history of the place. However, the quirky floor plan which I would never dare (re)touch, being a historic building and all, the incredibly low ceilings and winding floor plan with tiny rooms, made it unsuitable for a young family like ours, where a hoard of running, screaming kids are a daily sight. So we had to pass.  Yet while we were considering this house, I started thinking about how does one go about decorating such a place? How does one reconcile the comforts of modern-day life with the historical aspects which would be almost heretical to paint/remove/reconfigure?  And although I’ve been thinking about  a historic Cape in this case, I think the same questions remain for any old house that brims with character and a sense of  past – a colonial farmhouse or a Tudor style cottage or a Craftsman bungalow,  even a Federal style home… I wouldn’t dream of covering up the millwork with paint but then again, how do we achieve a middle ground between contemporary life and a home that comes with so much history attached? I love when rooms strike that perfect balance of old and new, of bright and airy and cozy and sheltering. 

I also started thinking about some of my favorite designers and architects that have undertaken restorations of this kind and the person that comes to mind in particular, an architect and designer whom I’ve always loved and felt inspired by was Tom Sheerer and his former Egypt Lane house in East Hampton. I think he achieved the perfect balance between a certain reverence to the past and a fresh, modern lens.  Architect Bill Ingram’s former Alabama cottage was another perfect illustration of decorating a home with colonial flavor. Not to mention architect and designer Steven Gambrel, who  has been on a mission to restore one-by-one historic sea captain homes in the small village of Sag Harbor, NY. So I guess what I’m trying to do is prepare you for an avalanche of pictures that have that historic character yet work well for today. I did not hold back :), I hope you enjoy!