A do-it-yourself long-term renovation works for an Alexandria couple

By Michele Lerner July 25 at 7:20 AM

When high school sweethearts Wendy and Alex Santantonio finished taking the SAT, they didnt head out for burgers or go to a movie to celebrate.

Nope, these two spent the afternoon refinishing an antique table that now sits in the couples Old Town Alexandria home. Their 15-foot-wide home, built between 1885 and 1890, has been the focus of their do-it-yourself restoration projects for the past decade.

When we bought the house in 2003, it had been a bachelor pad for years, and not a chic one, either, says Wendy. One of our friends asked us why we were buying such a crappy house, and my mother tried to be nice about it by saying, Im sure it will be cute after you work on it for a while. Thirty minutes after we owned it we had already ripped out the ugly carpet on the stairs so we could start refinishing the hardwood floors.

The Santantonios moved to the Washington area for Alexs job, and Wendy worked for 15 years in nonprofit marketing before transferring her love of restoration work into a career as a real estate agent with McEnearney Associates in Alexandria. Wendy has been blogging about the couples experience with their Old Town house at http://www.oldtownhome.com and has used her knowledge to help buyers and sellers with older homes in Alexandria.

Just because you hate something about a particular house doesnt mean you have to live with it forever, she says. Its great to be able to personalize your home and make changes to it, but not everyone can visualize how that might work, especially on a budget.

The Santantonios estimate theyve spent about $100,000 over the past decade on restoring and remodeling their home, about two-thirds less than it would have cost if they hadnt done the work themselves. Wendy has the design vision for the home, while her husband, who worked at an antique glass restoration business one summer and for a general contractor for two summers in Cleveland, where they grew up, has the skills to handle her projects.

Some of the work hes done on their home has included building handmade wainscoting for the staircase; creating a unique wine bar from an antique cabinet, an Ikea butcher block counter and a wine refrigerator; and crafting a charming, one-of-a-kind kitchen chandelier from an old light fixture and a set of teacups Wendy found at an Old Town consignment store.

Because of our first-hand experience, I can talk to buyers about how involved a project would be on a scale of 1 to 10 and tell them whether they need to hire someone or they can do it themselves, Wendy says. Some friends of ours were looking at a cute 1950s Cape Cod house in Alexandria, but they didnt like this awkward laundry room/pantry space. I showed them how they could turn it into an entertainment nook with a wine bar like ours, and that helped them decide to buy the house. Theyll tackle that project first.

The Santantonios home looks tiny from the front because its so narrow, but the property extends deeply from the street and ends in a peaceful brick patio with a fountain. Every room in the home features a restoration project or an unusual decorative item found or created by the Santantonios. The couple have successfully blended historic architectural details with modern amenities.

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A do-it-yourself long-term renovation works for an Alexandria couple