A Couple (and 3 Cats) Beautifully Renovated This Old House

Name: Sara Ruch, husband, and three cats
Location: Jersey City, New Jersey
Size: 1,500 square feet
Years lived in: 1.5 years, owned

My husband and I bought this home in the fall of 2017, after searching for close to a year in the Jersey City area. We knew we wanted a single family home, and the process was so much longer and more competitive than we imagined. We were lucky to have our offer accepted on this home, which was previously owned by the same family for many years dating back to WWII. Our home is in Jersey City Heights, on a quiet street with many amazing food options around. We decided to stay in Jersey City after renting here for three years, as it is close enough for us to commute in the city where we work during the week, but also an easy drive for us to get to our parents who live in Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

Jon and I have been together for over 10 years, and married for the last three and a half years. We live here with our three adopted cats, the third being one that we actually found in our backyard when he was only two weeks old.

Our home has always been a work in progress since we moved in; there is always a project to tackle. We worked with a contractor who did most of the big renovations when we first moved in including a new kitchen and bathroom. We actually lived upstairs while they were working on the downstairs, which was a complete construction zone. We turned our bedroom into a living room and the laundry room into a temporary kitchen, and slept in the guest bedroom.

We did not change the layout of the home, as we knew that would increase costs dramatically and we had a set budget in mind for the renovations. Upstairs there are two bedrooms and a middle space we use as our office. Off of that middle room is a laundry room. This is our first home or apartment with a second floor laundry and it is a game changer. There is one full bathroom upstairs. Downstairs there is a living room in the front of the house which leads into the kitchen and dining space. In the back of the house there is a TV room, which we spend the most time in and is definitely the most casual. We also have one full bathroom downstairs.

We love to DIY, so recently have been doing most of the work ourselves. We put up two ceiling medallions a few weeks ago, which helped to bring in more character. Our home originally had a beautiful large plaster medallion in the front room, but this was taken down and the remains of it were under the front porch. We unfortunately couldn’t save it as it was too damaged, so we found one we loved to replace it and did the work ourselves to put it up.

We still dream of redoing the front of the house to bring it back to what it looked like originally, and will hopefully do that next spring. The city helped us uncover old records where we found a picture of the house from the early 1900s so now we know exactly what we will change on the front including redoing the porch and bringing back the original corbels.

We are happy we found this place and will enjoy living here for the next few years. We don’t know if this will be our forever home, but we are so happy it is ours now.

Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Traditional with hints of vintage.

What is your favorite room and why? My favorite room is our front living room, which is the first thing you see when you walk in the door. From this room you can see the original staircase, the front door, into the kitchen and dining room. It has the exposed brick fireplace and a mantel that we salvaged from Long Island. It also has what I consider our biggest splurge, our Anthropologie mirror. I bought that six` days after we closed on the house, and waited months for it to arrive as it is always backordered. The fireplace was unfortunately closed up before we moved into the house, so for now we have an electric fireplace that gives it a cozy feel. We decided not to put a TV in this room, and instead we read, drink coffee, and play games with friends in this room.

If you could magically change something about your home, what would it be? If we could magically change anything, it would be to go back in time and save the original doors and windows in the front of our home. The previous owners left us a letter detailing the home in its original state, where there were beautiful half lite wooden double doors with a mail slot and two floor to ceiling windows that you could slide into the walls to open. I wish they left these in place, or at least stashed them in the basement so we could put them back in.

Any advice for creating a home you love? Our advice would be to take your time with renovations and decorating. We moved quickly as we wanted to get in the house as soon as possible (hello double rent and mortgage), but there are things I might change now when I look back. Now that we have slowed down, it allows us to spend time to really find things we love and will keep for many, many years.

Thanks, Sara Ruch!

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