If you want to skip to the wondrous results of our Coastal French Country style makeover, you can fast forward here. If you prefer a story from the start, you’re in the right place…

Skating Pond: the first impression (kinda coastal, barely French)

The property edges a wooded wetland park, and the namesake skating pond is really, truly in the backyard — just the type of setting you’d order up for three little boys. Granted, it had an unkempt gravel driveway and a season’s worth of weeds hemming it in, but you could see past that (even, daresay, appreciate the sound and feel of gravel under your tires). The first impression, in five words or less, was ‘this could be idyllic.’

My first impression of the house, however, required only one word:

Brown.

Brown, brown, brown.

Literally, four shades of it — not including the roof…

On the inside, they’d updated the master bathroom (beautifully, thank God) and finished the basement, but the rest was top-of-the-line 1980. More brown ensued.

It was mostly cosmetic problems. The house seemed well-built, brimmed with potential, and had just enough built-in charm to woo us. (It also had a fleur-de-lis doormat, and the previous homeowners had a French last name — 2 points). While checking it out with my favorite CT realtor (-turned-friend), I remember my pace picking up on the second floor. The thing just needed a coat of paint, and a life-giving injection of Coastal French Country style (ooh, la la, how I simplify)!

The sense that I’d found it, was building. All I had to do was confirm my 6’5″ husband would fit in the dormer shower (it wouldn’t be the first time that’d been a dealbreaker).

Miracle of miracles, he did.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT … WALLPAPER REMOVAL … Click here!

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