When my grandparents purchased their future home in Brielle, NJ, it was a diamond in the rough. Clad in brown shingles which overwhelmed its elegance and a little worse for the wear, "Pandy" as it became known by did not look very pretty. But my grandmother had a vision for this house and she knew it had a lot more potential than the nay-sayers were giving it credit for. I remember my aunt telling me once that the builders she hired to do the remodeling thought she was crazy when she decided to blow out the windows in the living room and put a ceiling to floor bay-window there instead. But after the plans were drawn up and the renovation was complete, they realized she had been right all along. The new windows allowed the sunlight to flood into the living room which now appeared to expand by 3 or 4 more feet just from the wealth of light. A massive mirror on the wall opposite of them doubled the size of the room and made the light that much more vibrant.
She also painted the house white and added balconies off the bedrooms upstairs. I'll never forget the large sunken bathtub in the upstairs bathroom, the cool checkerboard tile floor in the downstairs shower which she installed for my grandfather to use after he'd been playing golf, or the mural of hot air balloons painted on her bedroom closet doors. Not only did she turn Pandy into a showpiece, she also turned it into a home.
While sorting and scanning my family pictures this week, I discovered this shot- taken while the bay windows were being installed- along with its humorous little note scrawled on the back. I'm not sure whose handwriting is, as it does not look like my grandmother's. It might be my grandfather's and I can actually hear his voice teasing someone about the balcony which will eventually be outside the second-floor bedroom there. It's fun to find these little tid-bits of life in progress. It brings my family history down to earth in a way but keeps the stories alive with new information.
@taffy Thanks Taffy- yes I think this is the only house she did because they never moved after they came here. You might be right though- if she'd done more, she'd probably have been in demand. She had a great eye for style.
Thank you Brian, Debs, Joyce, Rick, Kerri and Vesna! Yes, it does seem like a big house from this picture, but in reality it is about average in size. It's how she decorated and worked with the floor plan that made it a beautiful home.
@pandorasecho Thank you Dixie! I have no idea if she ever considered doing someone else's home although I'm sure she had friends who probably asked for her opinion. I was just too little to know about it. @prttblues Thanks Bev! Most of them came to me via her attic when we were cleaning out this house.
@neatz Thank you Anita! Not a full blown shot but yes, I do have a few that are of the property and the house. It was a beautiful home and I always loved visiting here.
@bkbinthecity @dibzgreasley @thistle @digitalrn @kerristephens @vesna0210
Thank you Brian, Debs, Joyce, Rick, Kerri and Vesna! Yes, it does seem like a big house from this picture, but in reality it is about average in size. It's how she decorated and worked with the floor plan that made it a beautiful home.
@prttblues Thanks Bev! Most of them came to me via her attic when we were cleaning out this house.