Vision for an Old House

This hands-on couple have been reading OHJ since its newsletter days. Their forever project is an exemplary unmuddling that took them 22 years. Now the 1880s Queen Anne house is a showpiece in their New Jersey neighborhood.

- REGINA COLE

The porch flows into an attached gazebo that acts as an outdoor dining room.

A NEW REIGN The porch rebuilt: Antique wicker furniture is at home here. Homeowner Janet Smith stained the tongue-and-groove pine ceiling and mahogany floorboards prior to installation.

The Smiths created the interior from family pieces and flea-market finds. The tablecloth is from an uncle’s collection; china belonged to a great-grandmother. The gasolier came from a secondhand shop and was restored.

They never considered buying a new house. Nor did Janet and Bob Smith ever think they’d furnish an old house with contemporary pieces. “We love old things!” is their mantra, and their answer when they’re asked why they bought such a dilapidated 19th-century house as this one in Westfield, New Jersey. • They had to see beyond its present state, of course, not just love old things. When they bought the house, it had asbestos siding, and the once-gracious porches wrapping the front and sides were gone. A concrete patio pitched towards the structure, channeling water into the house. Tree roots had grown into the basement. Raccoons and squirrels lived in the attic. A handsome, four-story corner tower had been razed, down even to its foundation.

The Victorian house at it appeared ca. 1926: second owners the Scheffer family pose with their new Studebaker. (Courtesy Malcolm Scheffer, Mesa, Az.)

This is the house as it looked when the Smiths purchased it.

After removing asbestos shingles and restoring the exterior, homeowner Bob Smith built a porch and an octagonal corner gazebo to take the place of the original tower.