Roasted Lemon Chicken Thighs with Artichokes and Kalamata Olives Recipe
Keith and I have owned our store for 33 years and during that time our customers have had babies, moved, had more babies, moved again and then, the next thing you know, everyone flies the coop and the nest is suddenly empty.
However, for one family in Holmdel, that did not happen. With their kids mostly grown up they downsized from a more or less mansion to a relatively modest farmhouse on a couple of acres down the street–but no one is budging. The upstairs is chock full and there are a couple of more kids living over the barn. Luckily Mom and Dad are happily ensconced in their downstairs suite and convinced the more the merrier.
I can’t remember when they first came to British Cottage but I do remember toddlers, and lots of them. The young family had just spent a couple of years in London and were happy to fill their spacious home with British pine furniture. They bought hutches and armoires and large farmhouse tables and lived happily ever after until it was time for a change…
And what a change! On a gorgeous fall day I popped in to see how they transitioned to the new house, which they transformed from a chopped up, timeworn, century old building into a seamless home perfect for modern living. And it was immediately apparent that what they lost in square footage they gained back in charm and function. And I am pleased to say that they managed to reuse most of their British Cottage furniture–kudos to them. (We like to think we sell forever furniture but in this day and age of mid-century modern minimalism I am not so sure about that).
Take for example this television armoire. We still get calls from people who bought one of these in the eighties asking if we want to buy it back. (The answer is no). But I always say repurpose it; use it to store your office equipment, tools, scuba gear, golf clubs whatever. In this case this cabinet, from their former gigantic master bedroom functions as the hall closet and is chock full of all the stuff they don’t want to see but need to have. Is it big? Sure. But a built-in closet would take up just as much space, and it wouldn’t be as near as architectural.
Now, in their much smaller master bedroom, the television is mounted on the wall (over the British Cottage double dresser). Perfect.
They were able to use their British Cottage bed and nightstands in the new bedroom. Love this modern farmhouse look with the shiplap wall–which is what you might expect to see from a Joanna Gaines fan, and who isn’t these days? Not so typical is the Century Furniture loveseat in the chic chinoiserie print–clearly this homeowner has her own ideas about color and design. Although I have no clue how she got dogs to match the decor; maybe this will be the start of a new trend!
And boy do I love the master bath!
They were able to use the large (nine foot maybe?) zinc top table from their old house by building a banquette into a nook.
Even though the old house had a kitchen three times larger and a formal dining room, the homeowners like this arrangement much better. You don’t need to walk six miles to get to the fridge–everything is one step away–and, like many of us, they hardly used their old dining room so why bother to have one?
The narrow cabinet from the foyer (I think) in the old house makes a great anchor for the tv –which seems to be an essential element of the modern kitchen. Cool screen saver!
And look how the flip top table that functioned as a server in the old dining room makes a great desk here in the kitchen area.
Fortuitously a new leather sofa from Century fit perfectly in between the two matching cabinets that used to be in the second living room in the old house but look like they were made for the new family room.
As does the armless wing chair from Hickory White tucked into the corner. Clearly you can see how there is nothing cookie cutter about this house! I love how the rooms ebb and flow every which way. I don’t know who the architect was but the builder was Kurt Connor from Fair Haven and he did a fabulous job–this could not have been easy.
Here we combined two oak demi lune tables by the gang at Schwung Home to make a round table in the center hall for stacks of books or games or dining. I wonder if this was the original kitchen space from 100 years ago?
Everything about this house is unique; note the half doors to the kitchen and pantry areas–what a great way to corral all those pups–as opposed to the horrible looking and impossible to maneuver baby gates. And in this day of all white kitchens (guilty) when did you last see a Wedgewood blue pantry? Gorgeous.
Too much fun. Well almost too much fun. The most fun may be in the barn that the owners turned into a music room complete with a full bar and lounge area. No wonder the kids aren’t moving out! Note how the slipcovered sofa and oriental rug from the old master bedroom look great and add some warmth and texture to the space.
And did I mention the yard yet? The house came with several paddocks and multiple outdoor spaces. So not the ultra-manicured lawn they were used to, just a great space with room to run around, or sit and enjoy a few brews.
But at the end of the day big kitchen, small kitchen, banquette or none someone has to get dinner on the table. Even with their crazy busy schedules this is one family that makes sure that at the end of the day they all sit down together for a family meal. This recipe for oven roasted chicken thighs is one of their favorites, and now mine too. Just when I think I will never find something new to do with chicken, voila!
While we have yet to do much landscaping you can see we made some big changes to the property. The old driveway was demolished; it was a shared driveway from the main road for three homes and we were the guys in the middle. Now there is direct access to the new street in front of the house. That, combined with the removal of the monster maple tree growing into the basement, and all the overgrown shrubbery along with the rotten deck, really opened up the yard.
Here is Keith admiring the large bluestone patio that Mike Papa, our mason from heaven made us. Mike painstakingly handpicked every stone and then arranged it all just so. I was like hurry up already, but there is no rushing Mike. Fortunately it is lovely and just what we wanted after six years of living in an upstairs apartment–a nice wide open space to wine and dine and relax–outside.
I found a big mirror to hide the window and took away as much of the wrought iron as I could without having the ceiling cave in. Now it is a bit calmer and–more secular–although there is no hiding that cathedral ceiling!
We had the floors stained white. (It was the only way to have the five different woods that were used on the various floors installed in the house over the last nine decades look relatively, and I mean relatively, the same). And honestly I would have painted all the woodwork white too but, because we are the painters and I don’t do ladders, for now, I am willing to leave well enough alone–as clearly so is Keith.
Fortunately later that spring we were able to buy the pieces you see in the photos from the Hickory White Showroom during the 
Next we removed all the walls between the dining room, kitchen area and foyer to create one open space.That meant the original built-in cabinet in the kitchen (which I had hoped to save) had to go.
Now we have one room with our 
In the end, and a long story involving 
But once painted all that it needed (and could fit) was a pair of twin beds (by British Cottage of course) and an antique pine table to get us up and running for guests. Although the ancient Laura Ashley comforters from the old, old house might not be what my rough tough cowboy grandsons are expecting, they work just fine for now.
That leaves just one room to reveal. The former garage off the kitchen that the previous owner used as an office. 
Then we put a laundry sink in the adjacent bathroom. I agonized over this decision mainly because the darn sink cost a fortune–or nearly–and it certainly isn’t at all what you would expect to see in your normal suburban powder room. But this is right by my back door and I am a very sloppy gardener. Now I don’t need to sully my brand new white ceramic farm sink, white kitchen floor, or whatever else I can get my dirty hands on!
The reality:
We’re about 14 weeks and four dumpsters into our project. My original plan was to be finished by March 1–not going to happen. Right now, as I type, there is a crew in the basement installing internal french drains. Who knew Fair Haven was built over a series of underground streams? And who believed their seller when he said all the wet basement issues were resolved when new drains were installed in the road a couple of years ago?
And then you need to round up at least four really strong guys to wrestle the new beam–called a microllam–into place. Voila.
Ironically once we got the new beam in, and replaced the rotten sub flooring in the kitchen so we could set the headers (wooden things that support walls) for the new windows just in time for their delivery date… The truck, delivering the new windows, rear-ended someone en route to our job and one of our kitchen windows got broken–oops–too bad. So not only do we have to wait another month for the replacement window…we will have to pay our guys to come back and do the install. Oy vey already.
We added a master bath; a bold move seeing as we are now losing access to the balcony overlooking the great room. But I decided, knowing my family, someone would probably end up falling from it at a possibly alcohol fueled moment anyway, so safety and a bathtub trumped moonlight serenades.
So along with progress comes an appetite. All anyone (in our case usually Keith) cares after working in a freezing cold house all day is a hot meal and a beer. And what goes better with beer then pizza?
In order to make great homemade pizza, you need the right equipment–not a pizza oven but a good 
After two months we have accomplished nearly all of what Chip and Joanna Gaines do in the first five minutes of their TV show Fixer Upper. What you don’t see on television but face in a real-life renovation is mountains of paperwork and red tape. Nothing happens in the town of 
As we approach the holidays our neighbors’ homes in the Fair Haven historic district really shine. Meanwhile, at Chez Nelson, the lights are barely on. Just past our first month’s anniversary at 28B Gillespie, an optimist would say wow, we’re nearly there. A pessimist might not.
This is the core plan.
Sigh.
I’ll enlarge the existing windows so I can peer over my neighbor’s hedge to see the Navesink River and remove the ones looking right into my other neighbor’s kitchen windows. I’d like to put all the appliances on one wall–but that is so subject to change after I visit a number of local kitchen cabinet builders over the next week or so. Once my basic plan is finalized I’ll add a custom island for storage and seating that will come from the factory in Hungary that builds a lot of our furniture and if there is room, a hutch.
I was sold. 