Can Do Spirit

Giving do-it-yourself a whole new meaning, this seemingly tireless Long Valley couple completely restored their expansive property with their own four hands.

To most people, being handy means hanging a picture straight or perhaps fixing a leaky faucet. True do-it-yourselfers may take it further, building a deck, say, or carving out a modest flower bed. But frame a house? Dredge a pond? Build a greenhouse? Meet Micah Lay and Cindy Boerner, do-it-yourselfers extraordinaire who designed, framed, built, excavated, leveled, dredged, and planted to create a wonderful haven they call home.

Not bad for a couple who, when they married nearly thirteen years ago, had never even wielded a hammer.

In England, the two met while studying at the University of Bath—she, architecture, and he, engineering. Degrees in hand, they returned to New Jersey (where Boerner grew up) and began their careers, putting their skills to use for others. It wasn’t until they came across this run-down property set high on a hill in Long Valley, in Washington Township, that they decided to put their skills to use for their own benefit.

“A lot of it was just not being afraid to have a go at it,” says Lay. “We knew we’d make mistakes along the way. Our learning curve was quite steep.”

Originally, the property consisted of a run-down house (now the main house), an overgrown pond (now a bullfrog sanctuary), and stone ruins—a hay- and dairy- barn that burned down in 1915 and was never rebuilt (now the location of the vegetable garden and greenhouse). There was also a dilapidated barn which, in the final phase of restoration, is being converted to an office and studio. “Although,” quips Boerner, “I would never say final.”

Selecting projects based on priority, they first focused on the living quarters, adding several rooms to the main house, including a family room and master bedroom. They also thoroughly renovated the kitchen and built out daughter Kyra’s room in a cramped dormer where they previously couldn’t stand upright.
Eventually, their focus moved outside, and they began clearing and landscaping the backyard. They built a patio and playground with a view of the original silo.

They also dredged the overgrown pond in front of the house and rebuilt the stone wall around it. It’s now home to hundreds of bullfrogs, a favorite show-and-tell for Kyra’s kindergarten class.

The burned-down barn became their gardens, affectionately referred to as “the ruins” because of their naturally crumbling (yet preserved) state. They’ve planted corn, and rhubarb, and an array of herbs, as well as row after row of strawberries. The pair also built the greenhouse from scratch. A hot tub, a somewhat odd sight smack dab in the middle of the space, actually provides the heat for the greenhouse in the winter. In the summer, they simply turn it off.

The only paid labor in the entire nine-year project, says Boerner, was a spackler they hired for the house addition and a framer to help with the dilapidated barn. Otherwise, it’s been years of hard work for the two, along with an occasional helpful friend or family member.

Voices of Experience

Having spent nine years in various stages of a renovation, Micah Lay and Cindy Boerner offer a few tips:

Rather than just labor, the couple now take a bit more time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. “We joke that we don’t remember a time when we didn’t have an open permit,” says Boerner. 

★    Learn CAD. Even a simple computer drafting program will help avoid costly mistakes.
★    Use the Internet. There is a wealth of information—and products—available at your fingertips. 
★    Double the time. Be realistic about how long you think it will take, then double it—or more.
★    Repurpose/recycle. Good for the wallet and good for the Earth. For instance, they turned their old kitchen cabinets into a desk in the breakfast room. By recycling the old aluminum siding, they earned $600 toward new siding.

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