COMFORT & JOY

A YOUNG COUPLE FINDS THEIR BLISS (AT THE HOLIDAYS AND YEAR-ROUND) IN A RENOVATED GEORGIAN THAT BLENDS MODERN AND TRADITIONAL

- JODY GARLOCK

Christmas is always magical, but there's something extra special about the first big holiday in your first house. For Heather and Joe Kachinske, that milestone came in 2020 with memories they never imagined. The couple, along with their newborn son and 2-year-old daughter, had just moved into their Georgian-style home in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. The pandemic kept guests away and canceled Santa's annual fire-truck ride with bundled-up kids, a tradition in the village that skirts Philadelphia. With a renovation still under way, the holiday decor was sparse. Heather managed to adorn a tree with a few ornaments from the boutique toy store she was closing. At just 5 feet tall, the tree was dwarfed by the great-room's 28-foot-high ceiling.

"It was a strange year for everyone," Heather says. "But we enjoyed a cozy Christmas with just the four of us."

As odd as the holiday felt, Heather knew many more Christmases were to come in the house as the couple-who are set to welcome their fourth child in the new year-put down roots. "My husband, in particular, never wants to move again," Heather says. "He wanted to buy a house where we would still be happy there in 30 years. We were thinking for the future."

The couple took ownership of the house in March 2020, confident that the leap from a one-bedroom condo in the city to a five-bedroom, nearly 9,000-square-foot house in the suburbs was the right move. "We got lucky," Heather says of the prepandemic timing. "Right after we bought the house, everybody else was trying to make the same move."