The home’s stately exterior in stone first caught the family’s eye years ago. • This backyard hammock gets a lot of use, whether reading, playing or just taking a snooze. • Steve and Jennifer Polotko.
The grand dining room exudes a Renaissance
feel with heavily textured walls adorned in gold leaf and an antique door in
stained glass that separates the space from the butler
’s pantry
and wine nook. • Special painting techniques simulating timeworn brick and stone by Ezekiel Serna
of Ezekiel Innovations take this butler
’s pantry and wine nook back in time.
Jennifer Polotko fell in love with her house long before owning it. “I’d seen it being built years ago and loved the way it looked,” she recalls. “Then I saw it during an open house when it was on the market. I could picture my
family in it, but the timing wasn
’t right. I mean I cried over that house. My husband said if it ever went on the
market again, he
’d buy it for me. I’m happy to say, here we are.”
Jennifer and husband, Steve, appreciate the home for its large yard and
proximity to their children
’s schools. “The fact that it’s a six-bedroom was too good to be true. It’s a great house, a great floorplan, by far the most unique house we’d seen. It fit us to a T,” says Jennifer.
But the perfect house wasn’t in perfect condition. Years of neglect had taken a toll. Once gleaming wood
floors were now a dull gray and scratched from wear. Carpet and paint had seen
better days. Leaks needed fixing. Stark white cabinetry and moldings didn
’t seem to fit the home’s stately character. A major update was in store.
“It was very worn looking,” says Steve, who knows a bit about houses from growing up in a construction
business family.
“We knew we could update it and make it ours. And the exterior was always a big
draw for me. I just love the stone. I
’d not seen another home with this kind of stone.”
So the work began with the couple acting as contractors.
Certain architectural elements of the home lent itself to the Old World look. “That house just spoke to us,” says Jennifer. “It just lends itself to ...............................................
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