Welcome To The Country...

…where ravaging rainstorms, deep freezes, and an eagle-eyed building inspector can turn a simple little old-house reno into an epic journey.

- Deborah Baldwin

Sprucing up a plain-Jane room—or a plain Jane, for that matter—should be a minor challenge for Philip Leeming and Leong Ong, two fashion-industry pros with an eye for interesting fabrics and a flea-market habit that probably deserves its own TV show. But getting their fetching little farmhouse from just-okay to drop-dead charming was something of a trial. You’ve heard about man versus nature. How about man versus rain, tropical storms, ice, frozen pipes, ravenous deer— and fellow man? After blithely writing out a check for a weekend getaway in tiny Accord, New York, the two rural wannabes must have wondered more than once why they ever forsook the relative peace and quiet of their Manhattan apartment.

The city may even be an easier place to park. “We’re on a county road, a busy one for upstate, and we’re on a hill,” says Philip, recalling challenges their general contractor faced during one phase of a drawn-out renovation that cost way more than anyone thought possible. The house is also on a blind curve, with only a narrow, grassy drive. “He had to load materials on a crane and lift them over a fence—it was really tough.”

The whole experience was tough. “Our GC is a character,” Philip says, musing over the culture gap that can open between country cats and city mice. “We weren’t exactly in tune aesthetically. For example, he wanted to put in a patio with irregular-shaped stones. We were like, ‘No, no, we want straight lines.’

“When it came to the house, we just wanted everything very clean. And that was a challenge—to get straight lines inside an old house.”