Oxford house needed the Botox of restoration
OXFORD — Judy Gross has two preferences when it comes to houses — the very modern and the very old. And roughly two decades ago, it was a listing for a modern-style home that first caught her eye in a brochure she glimpsed while eating at a diner.
She and her husband, Mark. scheduled an appointment with the real estate agent and were, to put it mildly, underwhelmed.
“It was horrible,” Judy recalled, laughing.
The agent quickly pivoted and told the Grosses about another home, an antique in Oxford that needed a little love, but had great potential. Intrigued, the couple visited the home at 511 Quaker Farms Road.
What they found was a beautiful Colonial that had seen better days. The wallpaper was terrible and the areas that were painted were adorned in eye-searing shades of green and orange. There wasn’t even any insulation. Yet Judy said she still saw something in the house.
“It had good bones,” she said. “It was like a lovely old lady who needed Botox.”
Fast forward 22 years and many improvements later, and the house is gloriously restored, maintaining many original elements — such as its eight fireplaces, and most of its original flooring — while adding some modern updates. For one thing, the lack of insulation needed to be addressed, and fast.
“In winter, the water pipes froze and we had to turn on the oven to keep warm,” Mark said.
Other amenities that quickly needed to be added included air conditioning, an alarm system and updated heating and electrical systems.
But its antique character has been preserved, including the outhouse adjoining the home.
The Grosses have divided the house into the “old” part and the “new” part. The old part is genuinely old, with town records putting its construction at 1720 (though some of the information the Grosses have date its construction slightly later, to 1722).
Then, in 1805 the house was acquired by a woman named Sarah Pangman, who enlarged it by knocking through the northern wall and building a federal Colonial-style home. The part Pangman is responsible for is the “new” part, though the Grosses actually hosted a 200th birthday party for that section of the house in 2005.
Because of its rich, complex history, there are a lot of interesting facets to the home that the Grosses still don’t fully know the origin of. For instances, one of the floorboards in the house slides out to reveal a hiding place where a previous owner kept a record book and other items. There’s also a safe at the base of the chimney.
The 3,302-square-foot home has 10 rooms in total, including five bedrooms and three bathrooms. There’s an outdoor swimming pool and the house sits on more than 5 acres of property.
The Grosses, unfortunately, have to sell the home, as they are moving to be closer to family members. But they hope the house, listed at $558,000, ends up in good hands.
“When you have an old house, you have to respect it,” Judy said. Do you know of a house or apartment building with an interesting story? Contact