Page 20 - Merwins Lane_917

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HOMEOWNERS OF 917 MERWINS LANE
WHAT MADE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH 917 MERWINS LANE?
We were moving from Norwalk where we had a small lot in a very close community. We decided that Fairfield was
the town we were going to move to for many reasons. Our search began looking for properties with enough land to
afford us privacy and still be in a neighborhood where there were plenty of other children for our kids to play with.
Aside from the privacy factor, we wanted the land for a mini-estate where we could have a barn, pool, spa and
tennis court. The property met all of our wishes and it even has a great sledding hill. The existing home had
lots of character and charm and we were very attracted to it for those reasons. We immediately felt that
the existing antique home could become our dream home with the right planning and construction.
We wanted to retain the character of the original home, remove the newer additions and add space
to accommodate our needs.

PLEASE DESCRIBE THE RENOVATION PROCESS…
We hired an Architect to develop a master site plan locating the pool, spa and future
tennis court.Once we settled on the locations we designed the pool and spa and
had them ready to swim in the following Spring. We remained living in the existing
home while we developed the plans for the construction of the additions and
renovations with the architect. That process took about three years of on and off
work. We sat with ideas and rethought them until we were sure we had it right.
When we were ready to begin construction in July of 2009 we rented a house
nearby and moved out. The construction process was great. I'm a builder
and my wife Amanda and I had done so much up front planning that the
entire project was completed in just 10 months. We moved into our
beautiful home in May of 2010 and have been enjoying it very much
ever since.