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Midcentury Makeover
Realtors reboot Fairway section home with features they say clients love most
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER PHOTO OF ILLUMINATEDHOME BY JASON MANCILLA OF
FRONT DOOR PHOTOGRAPHY; ALL OTHERSBYRYAN DAMIANO OF FRONT DOOR PHOTOGRAPHY
When it comes to renovating a
property, who better understands
the features home
buyers want than the real
estate agents who hear about
them from their clients?
This is the premise that business and life partners
Irina Grobman and Susan Horowitz, agents
at West of Hudson Real Estate, use to market
new homes.
Working with frequent collaborators Jerry
Wechter and Jeremy MacDonald of Clear
Mountain Builders, who on their urging
purchased the ranch house at 27 Heller Dr. in
Montclair, the realtors’ input guided every aspect
of the six-bedroom home’s renovation, from the
layout to the finishes applied and the way ithas
been staged for sale.
The property “has amidcentury wonderfulness
that we wanted to enhance,” says Horowitz.
Built in1955 on nearly two-thirds of an
acre, “It’s in abeautiful neighborhood that was
formerly agolf course, and there’s adifferent
feel from the rest of the town,” she says. The
partners preserved the original architecture while
stripping the interior down to its studs to create
accommodations for agracious contemporary
lifestyle.
PORTALFROM THE PAST
(Above) Aside from a cedar closet in the second floor master bedroom, the front
door is the only original element in the home, says Horowitz.“It’s a cool element,
and we loved thehardware in the middle,” she says. She and Grobmanmoved the
staircase, which had led upstairs from adark hallway in the back of the house,
to the frontofthe first floor as away of opening up and brightening the space.
The large room behind glass French doors can be used as abedroom, playroom or
spacious home office. (Opposite) The living room is part of the open communal
half of the first floor, across from two bedrooms and the office.
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