A Modern Day Grey Gardens – In New Jersey

Hello!

I hope you’re having a great week.  The kiddos started school on Monday, and we’re quickly falling into a new routine.  Amazing how different their sleep schedules are when they have to get up early in the morning.  My daughter started at a new school this year, and despite the nerves (on her part and mine), she had a wonderful first day, and loves her new school.  Whew.

I thought you all would really enjoy this house, as I certainly did.  One of my best friends lives in New Jersey, and shared this article, as the house is near her.  It’s truly a modern day Grey Gardens story – a house where two sisters lived together (and apparently were also hoarders) and fell into a state of total disrepair, both inside and out.

Let’s start with the exterior – here it is before:

To give you an idea of the neglect that this house had suffered, take a closer look – 

The garage in the back – 

Here is the house after it was renovated – you can actually see it now!

The garage was fixed up as well.

The exterior is pretty tame compared to the inside.  And from what I’ve read, these pictures are a huge improvement from the state the house was when the cleanup first started.  The elderly sisters had piled stuff to the ceiling in every room.

For the sake of comparison, I’m going to post the after photos right after the before’s – I know it’s easier to view that way. 🙂  How’s this for a wow?  From what the article said, the floors were in great shape, hidden underneath the carpet.  Absolutely gorgeous!  I love that they run on the diagonal, and if you look closely, you can see the inlay that runs around the walls.  They just don’t make houses like that anymore.

Here is a before shot of the stairway.

You can see how it was restored here – so much lighter and brighter!  And I just adore that curved front door.

I don’t have a good before shot of the dining room, but you can sort of see it through this doorway.  

And the dining room now – it’s great that they were able to save the original corner built-ins.  They look good as new.

The kitchen – I don’t even know how to make a before/after comparison relative to the space planning.  Just, wow.

And the after…

While the kitchen is lovely, I have to admit, I would have loved to see a vintage white kitchen in here.  If you look closely in some of the before photos, you can see subway tile – it would have looked stunning.

A scary bathroom (with aforementioned subway tile, and what appears to be a pretty doorknob).

And after – lovely.  Much more in keeping to the style I would have loved to see throughout.

A bedroom – 

I think this is the same bedroom – renovated.

I think this is another bedroom.  I’m not sure.

I don’t know if this is the same room or not, but it’s still pretty.  Appears to be the master bedroom.

I can’t imagine all of the stuff they hauled out of this place!

Much better.

If you want to see more listing photos, click here.  More before photos can be seen in the article here.  What a transformation!  To see the original Grey Gardens (then and now) click here.