00:00Hi, I'm Eli. I'm Danielle. And this is Ellie. And welcome to our Sweet Digs. But
00:06before you come in, don't forget to subscribe below. Come on in.
00:14You may remember us from previous Sweet Digs where we showed you our first rental property,
00:19the greenhouse. But today we're showing you our new one. It's called the Barn House. It's also
00:23located in the Catskills, about two hours north of New York City. We pay $235,000 for this house
00:29and ended up putting in about $50,000 over the course of seven months. It has four bedrooms and
00:35three bathrooms and took us about seven months to fully gut renovate it. We lived here full-time
00:41for the last four of it. I work from home as a software consultant. And I'm a dermatology
00:47physician assistant in Manhattan. This house was actually built in 1845 as a hay barn and then
00:53converted in the 1950s into a residence. We weren't sure exactly what we were getting ourselves into
00:59at first. It just needed so much work, but it also had so much character. We just couldn't pass it
01:04up.
01:04These beams you see here actually about 175 years old. This is the living room. One of the biggest changes
01:13we made to this room specifically were the addition of all these windows, which just brings in so much
01:18more natural light. If you've seen our first house, you know we really love plants and a good plant wall,
01:24especially. It may not be the easiest thing to water, but we just really love what it brings to
01:28the space. This is our record area here. Music has always been such a big part of how we like
01:35to
01:35relax and enjoy the house. We got a bunch of these Marshall speakers and linked them so you can hear
01:40music wherever you are in the house. We knew we'd want a hanging chair and a lot of really comfortable
01:45places to sit to just relax with a book or enjoy music. Welcome to our kitchen. I think the biggest
01:54find was this cast iron farmhouse sink that we found on Craigslist. We built this wood base for it and
02:01had
02:02it refinished and it looks brand new. One of our favorite things in the house and maybe the biggest
02:07splurge is this range from Cafe Appliances. It's matte white with brass detailing, amazing to look at,
02:14and it's just really fun to cook on. I think this is probably the DIY project that we're most proud
02:20of.
02:20We actually built these wood cabinets and countertops as well. The bases are out of 2x4s and 4x4s that we
02:27notched out and the countertops are out of plywood. We sanded everything down, stained it, and then polyed it.
02:34We are definitely not professional cabinet makers, but we really love how they turned out.
02:39I think the biggest challenge during renovation was probably that our daughter Ellie was about 10
02:44months old when we started. And we had to plan the renovation around her schedule. Luckily each
02:50of us have kind of our specialties, so typically when one of us is working the other one is with
02:54her.
02:57Over here we have the dining hall, which started off as a pretty awkward space, but we ended up building
03:02this custom-made bench and table because we love to entertain and we wanted a really intimate space for
03:07people to sit around and eat dinner together. We chose this pendant light from Hudson Valley,
03:12which I feel like really complements the space well. And these vases here are from Allison Samuels
03:18over at Two Tree Studios. Now I'll show you my favorite room in the house, the room that we call
03:24bedroom four.
03:27This room actually used to be a workshop in the house, and the previous owners kind of used it as
03:33a
03:33walkthrough, but we knew we wanted to do something really special and make it an extra bedroom. During
03:38the first half of renovations, this space was actually our workshop. So we had our miter saw set
03:43up, all of our tools. It was covered in sawdust, so it's really fun to see how far we've come.
03:49My favorite part of this room is the custom tile that we designed with fire clay tile. There's a hint
03:55of blush,
03:55a pop of this mustard yellow color, and it's just such a statement for the space. When we decided to
04:02make this a bedroom, we knew we would need a door for privacy, but the challenge was finding a door
04:07that was big enough to fill the space. So we ended up making this barn door, and I feel like
04:12it complements
04:13the space really well. And here's our loft. We knew we didn't want a TV in the downstairs main living
04:20area,
04:21so we decided to create this cozy place for movie nights. It was hard finding a couch that would
04:26actually fill the space, but we ended up finding this one from West Elm called the Andes, which is
04:30probably the most comfortable couch in the world. In here, we have the hall bath. We removed and replaced
04:37all of this wallpaper with beautiful floral pattern by Anthropologie, and we put in the biggest mirror
04:44we could find. In this bathroom, we also went with fire clay tile and decided to do this pretty cool
04:50two-tone pattern. We added this brass rainfall shower, which I just love. This is the second bedroom,
04:57which I feel like has such cool details. I really love this pendant light that we chose by Hudson Valley,
05:02and actually the entire house has the linen line by Parachute, which I think is just so soft and
05:09sophisticated. For this bedroom, we wanted to do something a little bit different, so we filled all these
05:15West Elm frames that we love. Now let's go to the main bedroom. I love these windows. They're actually
05:22original. We were really lucky we didn't have to change them at all. The light that comes through
05:27here during the day is just amazing. In here, we have the ensuite bathroom. This clawfoot tub actually
05:33used to be bright red when we bought the house, and we sanded it down, refinished it, this beautiful
05:38naked clay color. We added a ton of wood and added this window as well, and I think it's just
05:44the
05:45serene space for a perfect bath.
05:52One of our favorite things about this house is the outdoor space. We have a hot tub, a big outdoor
05:57farm table, and a huge field for lawn games. We love to cook and entertain, and although we have a
06:03Weber
06:03grill, there's something to be said about cooking over a real wood fire, so we built this outdoor hearth.
06:08We bought 500 bricks and ended up using every single one to complete it.
06:16This is our fire pit area. We actually built the fire pit from rocks we found around the property.
06:21We knew we wanted a lot of seating, but at around deck chairs are so expensive,
06:24so we actually ended up building these ourselves.
06:29We're so proud of how the house turned out, and we can't wait to share it with friends and family
06:34and Airbnb guests for many years to come.
06:39Thanks for stopping by, but I have to go. It's time for dinner.
06:49Thanks for watching Refinery29. To see more videos, click here, and to subscribe, click here.
06:58Like, go ahead.
Comments