LONG TIME COMING

After nine years of dreaming, designing-and squirreling away savings-the owners of this 1894 Victorian finally give it the functional upgrades it needed and the updates they longed for

- JILL CONNORS

From the moment we stepped into this house, I was redesigning everything," says architect Derek Rubinoff, who, along with his wife, Robyn Marder, loved their home's Victorian character but knew the house needed an overhaul. Its history as a two-family home had left behind some significant layout dysfunctions, including a bare-bones kitchen with its sink in the pantry and unattached lower and upper cabinets sitting on the floor. On the second floor was another kitchen and a dining area where bedrooms should have been, and a glass-paneled wood door connected the couple's bedroom with their daughter's.

But between raising two kids, then 8 and 5, working full-time jobs-Robyn teaches high school English-and no available capital after buying the house, the couple could only dream and make do with the place as it was.

That all changed last fall, when the exterior's peeling paint couldn't be ignored any longer. On close inspection, rotting fascia, soffits, and siding came to light, which put new clapboards, trim, and house wrap on the agenda, which in turn highlighted the need for new windows. Derek and Robyn realized that the time to give the house what it and they-needed had arrived.

"I can't believe we actually did it," Robyn says eight months later, the family now settled back into their modernized forever home. "I have an amazing kitchen and so many improvements everywhere," she says, marveling at the renovation work done by builder Deliandro Dias and his crew. "Best of all, we did it while keeping the house's original Victorian elements," she adds. Lending a hand every step of the way was the team from This Old House, which documented the project as part of its 43rd television season.