If you tap links we provide , we may welcome compensation .
Carson Downing ; Design : Better Homes & Gardens
The Better Buy , a podcast from Better Homes & Gardens , explore all things home — from decorating and DIY to renovating and budgeting . For time of year 2 , we ’ll delve into the full plate purchasing process , from business firm hunting and moving to interior design and landscaping , with stories , hard-nosed tips , and advice from our client each week . We ’re on a military mission to inspire and empower you to make your dream nursing home . New sequence every Wednesday !
Credit:Carson Downing; Design: Better Homes & Gardens
On This Episode
Host Mélanie Berliet talks with Stephen Orr about how he take on his late home renovation projection , how he strike a balance between establish innovative figure elements and maintaining historical features , what he and his husband have done to make their new house their forever rest home , and the imperfectness inherent in take away on a large - scale restoration .
Meet Stephen Orr
Stephen Orris the editor in chief of Better Homes & Gardens and a Dotdash Meredith editorial content director superintend the companionship ’s food for thought , domicile , and travel content . He ’s an avid gardener and the author of two books on the subject : The New American HerbalandTomorrow ’s Garden . Previously , he help as executive editor at Condé Nast Traveler . He and his husband recently undertook the task of renovate their own home , an 18th - one C menage on Cape Cod .
Advice from the Episode
Stephen shares everything that went into creating his forever household , from renovation mischance , to compromise , to unexpected discoveries .
Stephen Orr
The house itself , we require to keep it until we ca n’t have it anymore . So it ’s not a house we desire to tack and we ’re not wanting to trade it in a few year . We want to be there until we ca n’t be there any longer . It ’s our forever abode , which I ’ve never had before .
Be Prepared for Imperfection
Nothing ’s sodding , and that ’s something with these renovations you have to be aware where you ’re willing to be fallible . And in this star sign , we ’re celebrating the imperfectness of everything . And I wanted to show the seams of where the 2023 planetary house , which is the sunroom and the kitchen , meet the 1938 planetary house meets the 1760 firm . So those arena I need to not delete them , I want those to be level that mass see . I retrieve celebrating all those imperfections is what I love the most and I call back that ’s what bestow the love affair more than trying to make everything modernistic and perfect .
My hubby and I were very clear that we did n’t desire to do what I call a white box reno , which would kind of make it look like a condo where you just go in , rive everything old down , put up drywall , paint it white , have all of the joinery and all of the objet d’art be really perfect . We did n’t need that . And anyone who wants to own a historic home or want to animate a historic home , anytime you attempt to keep the chronicle — first of all , there ’ll be a lot of hoi polloi that hear to talk you out of it .
Layering Time Periods and Design Styles
We require to penetrate the place with history , but also we did n’t want to be too beholden to that . So , I palpate like we ’ve tally a layer in the décor that is very appropriate to the eighteenth and 19th century and the sailor affair and you know , all the marine hooey . What I do n’t want to do is have it front like Colonial Williamsburg . So what we ’re doing now is trying to mess that up by buying modern art object or things that form very much with , but still against the colonial vibration .
Keeping Resale Value in Mind
I face at the theatre through our lens system first only , but then sometimes I kind of look at it and I ’m care , “ Well , if we had to betray later would we have done that differently ? ” And I do n’t recall we would . For instance , I ’m trying to do thing as green as potential even though that ’s almost insufferable .
Take Control of Your Finances
We tried to save money and as luck would have it our GC facilitate us . We take on a lot of the work that I imagine the great unwashed with a much bigger budget outsource . So we ordered a lot of material ourselves . We organized all that . So , we were hear to save whatever money we could and she knew that , so she helped us .
