Love is often irrational, which is why, when jewelry designer Jill Alberts first spied a ramshackle 1930s Cape Cod in Highland Park, “I fell so hard that I only had one thought on my mind,” she says. “How fast could I make it mine?”
Alberts bought the house on the bitterly cold day she saw it in February 1999, and promptly embarked on a full-blown gut renovation. Never mind that she was also dealing with a divorce, two young children, a burgeoning business and major repairs on the house she was selling.
With its cozy rooms, jaunty demeanor and quirks galore, the 2,500-square-foot place had all the intimacy and character that her former home lacked.
“It literally oozed charm. And I knew it had so much potential. I thought it was the perfect space for my little family,” says Alberts, whose children, Sarah and Jack, were 6 and 3, respectively, at the time.
But its assets were marred by plenty of problems.
Some were straightforward, such as missing moldings around windows, ceilings and doors; an unfinished basement that cut way down on potential play space for her kids; the hopelessly outdated bathrooms; and a kitchen with a chipped linoleum floor, decrepit cabinets, a stained sink and a dying stove.
Those changes seemed like a logical part of buying an old house. “It’s not so unusual to update those things when you move into a new house,” says Alberts.
But others were major. Every system in the house was on its last legs, the chimney had to be rebuilt, and the home had a bizarre master bathroom. “It was really tiny, with a toilet and a sink, and the shower was in an adjoining sitting room under the eaves. It was just a showerhead over a little patch of tile with a curtain around it, smack in the middle of the room,” says Alberts, still mortified by the set-up.
“It needed a gut job, but I knew I could do it on my own. I thought it would be fun,” she says. “I was really excited to start my new life in such a sweet little home.”
She was shocked when her closest friends thought she was out of her mind. “They started crying when I showed it to them. They were concerned about my judgment,” she says.
They needn’t have worried. Though Alberts was starry-eyed and naive when she started her labor of love, she proved her capabilities and mettle on the job — despite her chaotic life.
Her first step in the project was to become her own general contractor. “I hired subs who came highly recommended by friends who knew their stuff,” she says.
Alberts replaced the plumbing, electrical and heating systems; turned raw space in the basement into a playroom, an office for her growing business and a bedroom with a full bathroom; added architectural details in every room — including a handsome fireplace mantel with a Carrara marble surround — and redid the kitchen, complete with new oak plank flooring, without any glitches.
“We didn’t get any of those surprises that really complicate things, though it did require much more time and work than I anticipated,” she says. “I had to be on-site and on the workmen every day, and still ended up moving in a month late.”
She also allowed for future acquisitions. “I collect vintage lighting fixtures, so I added junction boxes in every room,” she explains.
But a few items did present challenges.
The most prominent was figuring out how to rework the space in the master bedroom to eke out a decent master bath. “It was already minute. My master bathroom in the last house was bigger than this whole bedroom,” she says. Still, she was forced to cut the diminutive bedroom by 25 percent to cede space to the bathroom for a shower. The sitting room lost its makeshift plumbing and became a walk-in closet.
A desire for Carrara marble counters in the kitchen also gave Alberts pause. “Everyone told me it was a terrible choice because it’s too soft and stains so easily, but I did it anyway,” she says. Thankfully, it worked out. “I love the results and have had no regrets.”
When she moved in, “I had a lot of what I wanted, but not everything,” she says.
Out-and-out budget breakers, such as new windows, tile-clad kitchen walls and a mudroom, were put on hold.
But not for too long. She immediately started installing fixtures as she found them at flea markets and antique stores, and today has every junction box filled. Five years later she added a small mudroom off the back door, and the next year she and her boyfriend did a DIY upgrade in the kitchen with subway tile walls, a wine cooler and open shelves for glassware that match the kitchen cabinets.
Next up will be new windows and landscaping in the front yard, but that won’t be the end of her improvement efforts. “Every time I do one of these projects, it makes my place so much better,” she says. “So why wouldn’t I keep on going?”
