The Cottage in New Hope

WHAT House with two bedrooms, one and a half baths.
WHERE In New Hope, Bucks County, Pa., about 70 miles from New York City.
WHO Chef TJ

“Back in the fever of renovating and flipping houses, my partner and I passed this 175-year-old house. It was the cheapest place in town. So we thought, how can we lose? Well, here’s how: First, it had originally been a two-family house but had six families living in it when we bought it. Second, the contractor called one day to say that he’d just had to remove the entire exterior wall of one side of the house and that, “You’d better get over here with your checkbook.” Three, my partner is a designer, and I can only say that it is a troubling and mind-boggling thing to see what happens when you put a nail gun in the hand of a designer.
In the end the renovation cost as much as the house had. So we thought of renting it. Let me put that differently: Desperate to recover our costs, we thought of renting it.

* NYT article Bethany Lyttle

But it’s been so great! The guests have been so fun, and because we travel a lot, and I’m in the hospitality business, we discovered we have a pretty strong sense of what guests want. We keep the surroundings crazy clean and homey without being too personal. And we allow dogs but don’t have carpets because we want the place to stay fresh and very clean.
The house is two stories. When you come in, there’s a great room with the kitchen on one side. We tucked the professional range into what had been an old fireplace. A breakfast bar divides the spaces but looks over the living room with a gas fireplace. There’s a laundry room and a half bathroom off the side of this floor in what was originally the attached lean-to woodshed. (Laundry is now upstairs and the shed is closed off for the owner)
To get upstairs you climb a winder staircase, original to the house, to the master bedroom. .... It has a queen bed, which we got up there only after my partner said, ‘We can’t get a queen bed up there without a trap door,’ and I said, ‘We are not putting in a trap door.’ I don’t need to tell you how that story ended.
What I think we offer is a comforting and attractive in-town house close to the restaurants, bars and shops, and within driving distance of boating and arts events. And of course proximity to the lovely countryside and excellent antiquing that Bucks County is known for.”