A First Look at the AGH Cottage

We’ve got some exciting news to share— we bought a new (old) house! Introducing the AGH Cottage; a 1930’s seaside dwelling, soon to be reimagined in every square inch.

This home has lovely bones, but needs a lot of love. We’ve got big plans for this place, all while keeping its charm, character and cozy in tact. Sharing more below, and we’re excited to take you along the way!

The Story

We’ve been looking at and putting offers in on numerous homes for the past several years, but none of them felt quite “right” to me. I had a vision for all of them, but none of them evoked a certain emotion that I want to feel when buying a home. After all, no matter how many homes we buy, fix up, sell, rent out, etc., buying a home is an emotional thing for me. About a year ago, we decided to expand our search to include homes near the water in Old Saybrook too (in addition to the country/woods of Lyme). There were a few that piqued our interest last summer, but none that I felt strongly enough about to move forward on. This cottage was actually listed for sale on the market back in the fall and quickly went under contract. We had admired this house for years, and were disappointed we didn’t get the chance to try for it. Then, fast-forward to mid-February of this year, we saw that it had gone back on the market. Within 24 hours, we were looking at the house; we walked in and I immediately felt the feeling I had been waiting for. 24 hours after that we submitted our offer; even though we had missed out on so many other houses and we found ourselves in yet another multiple-offer situation, I just felt like it was going to happen… and it did! 24 hours after that we had an accepted offer. We closed on the house in late March, and moved in at the beginning of May. We will be living in a construction zone on and off while the renovation phases take place, but it will all be worth it.

We will be only the third person to own this special home. The last owner has inhabited it for the last 65 years, and the first owner rented it out to the second owner until they ultimately purchased it. The preservation of what makes this cottage so special is a top priority to us, and we’re excited to be its next stewards.

Here’s a first look! Take a “before” tour of the AGH Cottage.

The Floor Plan

The house truly has lovely bones; so much so that we don’t want to change the footprint of the house. We just want to make the flow and floor plan work better for us. We will mainly be changing the functions of some of the rooms, and ultimately converting garage space into living space. We have more details to work out, but we know generally what we’ll aim to achieve with our new floor plan and layout of the house.

Home Specs: Current → Future

Year: 1939
Square Feet: 1,432 → ~1,882
Bedrooms: 3 → 3
Bathrooms: 1.5 → 3 (2 en-suite)

Also, thought not seen in the provided floor plans, the lower level of the house has an additional 1,400 square feet: a bonus/flex space (underneath the living room/dining room), a laundry room (underneath the kitchen), and a storage area (underneath the bedrooms). The additional square footage makes a huge difference in how comfortable and functional this house is able to be.

The Renovation

Though I may have made the renovation seem “simple” by deducing it down to “making the flow and floor plan work better for us by changing the functions of some of the rooms, and ultimately converting garage space into living space”, this home/project is actually quite an undertaking. By the time we’re done, we will have touched every square inch of this place. One of our goals is to take down as few walls as possible, and keeping the footprints of individual rooms in tact as much as possible too. One thing working in our favor is that it’s a small house and makes everything a little more manageable.

The Renovation will be broken down into three main phases, with some smaller sub-phases happening within them. The renovation will span over the course of a 3 (optimistic) to 5 (realistic) year period, while being able to fully enjoy the house in-between each phase. Explaining more below!

Phase One- Kitchen/Dining/Living Room + Exterior Work

Phase 1A (Immediate & Underway)
- Gut renovate kitchen (all-new plumbing & electrical, sheetrock, cabinetry, countertops, appliances, fixtures, lighting, etc)
- Demo/Remove wall that separates kitchen from dining/living room
- Install a 16-foot support beam (recessed in attic) where wall used to be
- Install railing around descending stairwell/access to lower level where wall used to be
- Fix/add connecting non-structural beams to existing ones that were affected by removal of wall
- Empty/Gut half-bathroom that will become pantry (rough plumbing, electrical and sheetrock, but leave empty)
- Refinish all floors
- Paint entire first-floor interior (including removing wallpaper in nearly all rooms): walls, trim, millwork, ceilings, etc.
- Chimney Repairs
- HVAC Repairs
- Preliminary Exterior Work (replace any rot, scrape/sand & paint all trim, paint front door, replace a section of defunct gutters)
- Put in new front lawn & plantings
- Clear out overgrown shrubs, trees and other plantings in backyard
Phase 1B (Fall 2026)
- Re-side entire house
- Replace front bay window (3 separate windows)
- Remove a set of slider doors & replace/expand with four new windows along the south wall facing the water

Phase Two- Pantry/Primary Bathroom/Laundry Room

Phase 2A (Winter 2027 or TBD)
- Renovate Primary Bathroom (tile flooring, tile shower, vanity, toilet, millwork, storage, etc)
- Create Pantry (tile flooring, cabinetry, countertops, fixtures, etc)
Phase 2B (TBD)
- Renovate Laundry Room (framing, sheetrock, painting, tile flooring, cabinetry, countertop, fixtures, electrical, plumbing, etc)

This phase will take care of the remaining spaces in the existing square footage that weren’t renovated in Phase One. After Phase Two wraps up, we will have a very functional house to live in for a while.

There are two other spaces/rooms that float between Phase Two and Phase Three, and could end up getting lumped into either phase depending on a number of factors. The first is the conversion/creation of a full bathroom (where office is currently), and to convert a 3-season porch into a mudroom. The bathroom will take priority for a few reasons: 1- we will have been living with only 1 bathroom for a while now at this point, and this will add another full bathroom back into the house; 2- the 3-season porch to mudroom project is a much bigger undertaking, as it is essentially an outdoor space that will need to be made into an indoor one. However, the timing of the bathroom project needs more thought as it eliminates our office, which will have a ripple effect on other rooms in the house.

Phase Three- Convert Garage to Living Space

In Phase 3, we’ll take around 75% of the garage’s square footage and convert it to living space. This will create a primary bedroom suite, and add back on an office/bedroom #3 that was lost in previous renovation projects. We will essentially be starting from scratch on this project, aside from a poured foundation and the exterior shell.

Undefined Projects (that don’t have a specific timeline yet)

Install fence in front, back, and part of side yard.
Replace Roof
Remove asphalt driveway & replace with pea stone (steel-edged)
Put in outdoor patio in backyard
Change look of fireplace in living room (lots of thoughts, can’t decide yet)
Replace remaining windows, as needed
Semi-Renovate Flex/Bonus Space (paint, flooring, drop ceiling, etc)

That’s everything, and it’s a lot! Lots of little stuff along the way, too. I’m excited for the opportunity to be able to take everyone along on this big project and share more than I would typically be able to with client projects, such as sensitive information like associated costs and just a deeper dive in general.

The Inspiration

I have so much inspiration gathered for this house, and everything will take shape over time. Here is what is informing my decisions at the beginning of this journey.