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Marion and Mort Syversen keep a small triangle of crusty orange wood in the drawer of their kitchen island. It reminds them of the way the room looked when they moved in a decade ago – big, orange floral wallpaper from a 1960s remodel and varnished birch cabinets that turned a rusty shade over time. They kept the cabinets, too, but you’d never recognize them from the “before” pictures in Marion’s renovation album.
“We took the cabinets out and we cut out – we meaning Mort – the plywood,” Marion Syversen said recently in the couple’s Hampden home.
He sandblasted glass, inserted it in the once-humble cabinets and moved them to the pantry, which they call a butler’s pantry – “just in case we get one,” Marion says, laughing.
The Syversens don’t need a butler. If their house is any indication, they can do just about anything themselves – and they’d hate to pay someone to do it for them.
“I wasn’t born into money,” said Marion, a financial planner who thinks her clients appreciate her frugality. “Most of us aren’t, so what do you do? I want it to be beautiful and I don’t want to spend a lot of money.”
For the Syversens, this isn’t a problem. For starters, their children are grown, so they have time to make things happen. Marion can’t sit still. She has boundless energy and a raucous sense of humor. She’s an avid HGTV watcher, magazine reader, yard-saler, dump-hunter and bargain shopper. She has no shortage of ideas – or stuff.
Mort, a metallurgical engineer, is a bit quieter, more pensive. He appreciates a good deal, like the set of new kitchen cabinets they scored at a yard sale for $200. And he knows how to turn his wife’s vision into reality and her bargain finds into practical, attractive home accents.
Take their Jenn-Air double convection oven, for example. They spotted the appliance, a $1,300 value, at Marden’s but the bottom door was broken. Mort called the manufacturer and asked if they’d send him replacement glass. They said yes, so they got their dream oven for $600 and a little elbow grease.
The Maytag glass cooktop in their kitchen island came from Uncle Henry’s. It was 2 years old, and its owner decided she wanted to redecorate – again – so the Syversens bought it for $200. Mort built the base of the island and Marion tiled the top, which is the focal point of the room, with granite. Their other countertops are bottom-of-the-line ceramic tile.
“We paid real money for the granite,” said Marion, 50, a petite brunette. “We hate that.”
“But you need to spend real money to get quality,” added Mort, 56.
The Syversens aren’t cheap – they’re creative, and they have the benefit of good taste. If you walked into their home, you’d have no idea how little they paid for things. They know where to splurge (a pair of gilded wall sconces from Paris, in the living room, bought on eBay), and where it won’t hurt to scrimp (a slipcover made from Marden’s fabric, also in the living room, which cost $1 a yard).
“Everybody has a thing they’re willing to pay real money for, and things they’re not willing to pay real money for,” Marion said. “Men don’t understand why women spend money on shoes, and women don’t understand why men spend money on stereo equipment.”
For Marion, the granite countertop and sculptural trim tile in the kitchen were the Manolo Blahnik stilettos. The wooden chest with glass doors, which she found at the dump and had Mort fix into a china cabinet of sorts, was like flip-flops from Payless.
They do most everything themselves – even when they don’t know what they’re doing – and if they screw it up, they start over again. They’ve learned a lot since they bought the 19th century farmhouse in 1994.
“I don’t think you know what you can do until you try it,” Marion said. “We have a level of skill, but some of the stuff we’re doing, it’s the first time we did it.”
“We pay so little for things, if you botch it, you throw it out,” Mort added. “What’s the worst that could happen if we buy something for nothing and screw it up?”
That said, they’ve amassed quite a collection of things that might come in handy someday. They yard-sale like pros. They go to auctions. They shop Uncle Henry’s and Marden’s. The Hampden dump has a recycling center where people can bring things they don’t need but are too good to throw out, such as leftover tiles from a bathroom project, furniture, clothing and tools. At the dump, all bets are off for the Syversens.
“The philosophy is this: going to the dump is the absolute maximum in impulse shopping,” Marion said. “You think later. You don’t have to buy it, it’s just in your car. It’s not marriage. You’re not making a major commitment. But you have to take it now because it’s free.”
Free and frugal are the buzzwords in the Syversen household. And it doesn’t hurt that they see potential in everything. A few years ago, they tore down a rotting ell at the back of their home. Rather than get rid of all the debris, Mort saved the beams and sills, some of which were in good shape, and used them to build a screened-in cottage deep in the woods behind their home. In the Maine tradition, they gave their “camp” a name: “The Gazetteer,” or “The Gaz,” for short.
Mort also used some of the wood to build a footbridge in a marshy area of a path that winds through their 2-acre property. They bartered with a friend to plan the woodland path and hired a landscape designer to draw up plans for their perennial garden. They did the planting themselves, and Mort built extensive rock walls in the front yard.
“He’s not just capable from an engineering standpoint,” Marion said, “he knows how to make it be beautiful.”
Knocking down the ell gave the Syversens an opportunity to build a sweeping addition at the back of their home. As Marion walks through a hallway into the great room, she turns to a visitor and says, “Wait till I tell you about the bargains in here.”
She found the rugs at an auction and the sideboard at a yard sale. A fledgling carpenter sold them their cabinets for a song. But the best deal of all came in trade. Marion had bought an emerald ring at an auction several years ago for the setting – she never liked the stone. A plumber friend had a wife who really loved emeralds.
“He took the emerald, put in radiant floor heating, and I got a sapphire [with the money left over],” Marion said.
She also scored a granite fireplace for $700 and a pair of Valley Forge iron wall sconces for $50 apiece. A chair that her mother-in-law found in the garbage and reupholstered serves as an accent and an inspiration. There’s only one thing missing.
“Mort keeps saying he wants a flat-screen TV,” Marion said, laughing. “I say, as soon as it’s at the dump, honey, you can have it.”
Tips for a frugal renovation
. If it’s inexpensive, buy it. You might need it someday.
. If it’s free, take it.
. Trade labor, expertise or items whenever possible.
. It never hurts to ask a professional.
. Know where to save and where to splurge.
. Try to reuse things creatively.
. If you have space, save undamaged demolition debris.
. Clip coupons – you can save a bundle on fabric and furniture .
. Pace yourself or you’ll burn out.
. Think of what something could be, not what it is.
The Syversen House
Where: Route 1A, Hampden
Cool features: a woodland path with a secret screened cabin, Japanese seagrass wallpaper in the bathroom, handmade mantel in the living room, a potting shed in the garage, made from recycled and scavenged materials.
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