We’re new homeowners who closed on our 2003 Cape Cod house in the Hudson Valley in February 2022 and are excited to begin our first home renovation project.

In the years prior we resided in a 380 sq. foot apartment on New York City’s Upper West Side. While it was functional, it always felt too small for us. When my job went remote during the pandemic, it felt downright claustrophobic. Our short term solution was to move into Joanna’s parent’s home on Long Island, then later to their Summer home in the Berkshires. Living in larger spaces gave us a taste of what we had been missing and what we wanted for the long term.

COVID and the housing market

We started our house search while COVID was still raging, targeting the Hudson Valley because we wanted to be close to my aging mother, who resides by herself in the region. I have roots in the Hudson Valley, having spent many Summers and weekends at my family’s 1850s farm house in New Paltz. My grandfather, an architect, and grandmother had retired there in the 1940’s, installing the plumbing and electricity. As you can imagine, that property required constant maintenance, so I was always working on one project or another.

I inherited the property with my siblings when our father died in the 1990’s. We couldn’t always agree on what upgrades were needed and that proved to be an overwhelming challenge during Covid. Joanna and I were constantly watching home improvement programs and we wanted a place that we could spruce up and make our own. So, I sold my stake of the farm house.

The Hudson Valley housing market was red hot at the time. Bidding wars became the norm. New listings posted on Fridays and by Sunday a house we liked was already off the market, sometimes with all cash offers, sight unseen. House inspections were suddenly a thing of the past.

We refused to engage in the craziness, and we’re so glad we didn’t.

The house we landed on had been on the market for 100 days when our real estate agent showed it to us. The house hadn’t been updated since the initial 2003 build. The condenser unit for the HVAC system was never installed; the kitchen was outdated; the primary bathroom / closet layout didn’t meet our storage needs, the carpeting in the bedrooms needed to be replaced (preferably with hardwood floors), and the back deck had seen better days.

Seeing the potential

As we walked through each room, we immediately saw potential and knew how we wanted to renovate it and make our home happy. As an added bonus, the backyard creek and waterfall, which we could hear throughout the house, tied into our search for a peaceful and tranquil environment.

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