Kennett Square House

Client: Denise Orenstein
Location: Kennett Square, PA

This house needed an exorcism. The previous owner, who overestimated his abilities as a "Do-it-yourselfer," had slopped on the devils, obscuring the structure's origins as a 1700s farmhouse.

We ripped up the new Bruce wood flooring to expose the original random width planks. We patched in with reclaimed longleaf pine. We enlarged the opening leading to the living room, as well as the opening leading to the kitchen. To trim out, we used hemlock floor boards from a horse barn in Moorestown, New Jersey. The Hemlock was scooped out around the knots, where two hundred years of horse weight had worn the fibers away. We took a post from the barn, also made of hemlock, and gnawed on by horseteeth, and re-mortised it to make a newel post and railing. We took the cypress siding from the same horse barn and built a platform and siding for the slipper tub. We ripped out the original kitchen and built new cabinets, countertop, and open shelving using all salvaged longleaf pine cut from timbers of a Philadelphia mill. We retiled the bathrooms, installed the washer and dryer upstairs and built cabinets to house them, built bookshelves, installed two sets of French doors, exposed the ceiling joists and sheetrocked between them, then sanded and finished all the reclaimed flooring and painted the whole house.

Over the course of the work, Denise was kind enough to give us the house to live in. Being a bunch of city-boys with country aspirations, we had a fine time fishing in the evenings, swimming in the Brandywine River, and barbecuing every possible food, from beet to lobster and back again, with an occasional unopened Bud Light tossed in the coals for good measure.

Two months later, the devils are no more.

Client Testimonial

"Greensaw Design is a unique design/build business and Brendan an unusual contractor.  Although I have renovated a number of houses before, this experience was entirely different as those working on the project were true collaborators, caring as much as I for the house and the renovation outcome.

Many of the carpenters on this project are visual artists - painters, graphic designers, true craftsmen- and each of them brought an individual sensibility that benefited every nook and corner of this old farmhouse. They approached their work with care and sensitivity, taking pride in each detail and refusing to compromise, even when the challenges at hand seemed overwhelming.

I would recommend Greensaw with enthusiasm."

Denise Orenstein

Select another Home Project:

21st & Pine House
Kennett Square House
Judson House
Italian Market House

Related Projects:

Kennett Square Kitchen

Select another Category