We bought our home in Plymouth, MA, in March 2021, commenced a massive renovation a couple months later, and awoke for the first time in our new-to-us place on New Year’s Day 2022. This has … well it’s been a journey! It’s ending sooner than we expected – we went into contract on Friday, Feb 13th – and we’re relocating back to CA. We’ll get some content around that together soon. Meanwhile, here are some nuggets about our soon-to-be-former 6000 square foot “casita” and the adventures we had renovating her. There are some GREAT pics of her here.

Here’s what I would have written for our MLS listing, were it up to me:

“location, Location, LOCATION! Halfway between Hingham and Hyannis, and nearby to popular beach enclave Manomet, and affluent Pine Hills, Plymouth is up and coming, and this house is very well situated.

Completely renovated, design-forward home offering modern efficiency, flexible living, and a prime Plymouth location on over an acre of land. Walkable to downtown Plymouth, Long Beach, and the beautifully redone Stephens Field coastal park — just one mile to Route 3, the hospital, and police station — all with none of the associated noise.

Formerly low upstairs ceilings have been vaulted, creating dramatic volume and light. Extensive upgrades include spray-foam insulation, all-new plumbing and electrical, 5-zone HVAC, instant hot water, solar panels, and a relatively new roof. The efficiency is remarkable: summertime electric costs $10 monthly on average; winter gas bills average around $500, again for six thousand square feet.

The fully remodeled and expanded chef’s kitchen anchors the home, complemented by transitional and mid-century modern finishes throughout. Fully revamped laundry, spacious pantry with all new wood shelving. Three palatial primary en-suite bedrooms, three fully renovated full baths (one with soaking tub), plus two updated half baths. Abundant storage throughout.

Finished walk-out basement offers additional living and entertaining space with wet bar, pool table, and massive storage. Completely remodeled two-car garage, newly paved driveway with parking for three additional cars, and extensive front and rear soft- and hardscaping create beautiful, low-maintenance outdoor spaces. Truly move-in ready with no deferred maintenance.”

For Brokers, here were my talking points:

“Exceptional location and land value: walkable to downtown Plymouth, one mile to Route 3, hospital, and police station, yet privately set with no traffic or highway noise. Over an acre of property is rare this close to town. Home was taken down to the studs and rebuilt — electrical, plumbing, insulation, HVAC, roof, solar, garage, driveway, kitchen, baths, hardscaping, and finishes all upgraded. Three true primary en-suites offer flexibility for multigenerational living or high-end buyers seeking turnkey condition. Finished walk-out basement functions as second living/entertaining space. Show with confidence — this is not a cosmetic renovation.”

Originally, we found this ideally located spot in a wonderful downtown neighborhood together with my sister-in-law, whose husband had just gone into care. And, since names are important, we dubbed the place our Cape Casita de Tres Chicas – it’s a cape style home, and large tho it is, cozy enough for us 3 Mujeres.

At 6000 square feet, it afforded 3 working adults plenty of corners to which to retreat, as well as common spaces aplenty. With 2 primary bedroom suites, a full guest suite, a mudroom / causeway bridging the entry to the home from the garage, and a 1400 square foot finished ground floor walk-out basement with completed storage space, a half bath, gym, wet bar and gaming room, spacious is the key word.

Starting with the infrastructure, we completely overhauled what turned out to be deeply neglected plumbing and electrical systems – seriously, our Realtor dubbed the new HVAC “the Bugatti of HVAC systems”. 😂😤 We converted from oil to gas heating, thoroughly insulated, and mitigated the flooding exacerbated by the town’s seeming disinterest in public safety measures. There had also been a big rodent problem, which we immediately eradicated, followed by spray foaming the majority of the house.

We gutted most of the main and 2nd floors, opening up the kitchen to create a continuously flowing space amidst the living and dining rooms. We opened up the terrifyingly cramped, curving stairwell from main to 2nd floors, making it safer, bringing it to code, and beautifying it. Our builder even added a cleverly hidden entry to an attic storage space mid-railing, which would otherwise have been nightmarish to move further back, given the elongated stairwell.

We expanded the primary bath on the main floor, converting the shower stall to a curbless entry with infinity drain, and adding a freestanding soaking tub, a custom walnut vanity, a washlet and mid-century mod finishes. We cathedralled the ceilings of both upstairs suites – cladding the resulting beams into the bargain – gutted both baths, and refinished the wood floor in the primary upstairs bedroom. To bring in more light, we added transom windows to all three primary showers. No square footage was added, but it feels much more bright, expansive and open now.

We modernized the finishes throughout – removed or streamlined ornate built-ins, painted over outdated pine wainscoting, favoring a transitional look to bridge between co-owners’ modern and traditional sensibilities. The outdoors received initial landscaping updates, but the backyard and hillside will be a blank palette for the new owners. Overall the home is cozy, peaceful, solid. We were quite happy and felt so fortunate.

We’ll elaborate the befores and afters later, but here are a few glimpses of the before state of the place, as she was before, to provide some context:

And now for the first update:

Let’s start with curb appeal! Originally the house had traditional cape-style shutters and warped, greying shingles. We removed the shutters, power-washed & stained the shingles, and painted the exterior doors. To mitigate flooding, we added a granite apron across both entries to the driveway, effectively driving water streaming downhill into drains.

There were trees dangerously crowding and even overhanging the house – we trimmed and removed several to prevent mold build-up and avoid snow-bound disasters, things we never would’ve considered in CA.

There was a brambly, tangled mess of a garden at the entry to the home, an ill-considered hodgepodge of walkways, and a weird paver-covered parking spot right in front of the entry. We cleared that out, added a front deck for a welcoming effect, further mitigating basement flooding into the bargain.

Finally, we repaved the driveway, creating a drain effect for flood control, added a central tree between the driveway entrances for visual interest (and frankly to signal snowplows not to pile snow up against us!), cultivated garden spaces and landscaped it all to tie in together. What previously appeared to be a parking lot finally looks like a proper front yard.

More details of the improvements:

Above are all befores. YIKES! Below, now let’s enjoy the afters!

Isn’t she PURDY?! 😍🥹

We of course did all the necessary infrastructure upgrades: there was no A/C, and everything else was old, inefficient, and potentially hazardous.

Completely revamped plumbing, electric, and HVAC. #TheBugattiOfHVAC (and no more nasty oil tank!)

Now for a clever solution to both mudslides and inaccessibility:

When we bought the house, water from rainfall and snowmelt created an uncontrolled mudslide down the west side of the house, building up against the base of the house and blocking the side entrance to the walkout basement. We dug out from that and installed a retaining wall with stairs for humans and a ramp / pathway for equipment, and later recycled the tile we had pulled out of the haphazard front yard to create a walkout patio.

The mudroom / sunroom / causeway / breezeway situation was … well, she was frankly just dark and dank. We spray foamed the ceiling beneath her and replaced the weird vinyl flooring with a driftwood-like tiling, which we then continued in the 1/2 bath and laundry down the hall. A few coats of paint, some updated furnishings, and voilà, she positively shines! As bonuses, we brought in a few plants for greenery, which adore all that sunshine, installed a mini-split for A/C, and converted the ancient fold-out ironing board to a clever little tucked in shelf for things like the sunnies that you’ll need in that room.

Now, the kitchen was a TRUE transformation. It was boxed in by a wall of cabinets, the range wasn’t vented, there weren’t very many windows, the tile was ugly and not well installed, and it was just generally cramped and outdated. By knocking out the wall between kitchen and LR, opening a sliding door to a (future) deck, installing a 10’x4′ island with built-in shelf microwave, and updating the lighting, it’s much brighter and more expansive. We tiled the backsplash on both sides of the room so that it all ties together. We installed wider plank wood flooring but stained it to match the rest of the house so it blends seamlessly. Looking south out of those beautiful new windows toward the adjacent pond, it really feels like you’re in a treehouse. And now, instead of a divided DR, LR and Kitchen, there’s a true, cohesive Greatroom, with light, flow, and continuity.

UP NEXT: Ye Terrifying Olde Stairs!

The former stairwell between the main and upper floors was, in a word, precarious. It was locked off, curved, narrow, and steep – definitely not “to code”!! We had an architect help us design an update to it, which naturally led us to another challenge: the landing. Now, normally, that wouldn’t be such an issue, but in this case, of course, the radiator is RIGHT at the top of the stairs, and right in front of it is the entry to a very handy attic storage space. SO. Our very clever GC devised a super innovative solution: he left the door where it was, and cut an almost-unnoticeable opening in the railing where you can enter from a stair below the landing. 🤯🧐 Oh and the new stairs are GORGEOUS (besides being safe)! (The GC, also our friend, is a genius at carpentry!)

Beneath the stairs, the first main floor bedroom lost a little space in bringing the stairwell up to code, but she gained a storage area. She’s snug, so best suited for use as a study or nursery. The main floor primary suite is right across the hall.