heavy furniture and fussy wallpaper, and in their place are sleek, understatedly elegant spaces. We sat down with Cathy in what she calls the sitting room, a serene, stunning little salon off one of the dining rooms, after a tour of the new and vastly
improved PSI, for a chat about how all this came to be. I can’t help but notice that enormous painting of the building over the fireplace here. Did you have that done? Believe it or not, we found it in the basement, and we took our cues for the col-
Fireside Drinks Guests enjoy a toast in the new sitting room that adjoins one of five dining rooms. Aleksey Moryakov
ors in this room directly from it. The smaller portraits hanging throughout the room are of the Peter Shields family and we had those restored as well. They were beautifully framed and hung by Jason Crafts of The Gilt Complex over in Avalon. He appraised some of the other things we found, including the spool mirror hanging in the lobby. He cleaned it up, restored it, and appraised it at $10,000. The portrait hanging just inside the front door was a gift to us from my 93-year-old aunt, who bought it some years ago at a yard sale because she thought the subject was handsome. Jason appraised it at $7,000. How did you happen to hook up with this particular property? I checked a commercial real estate website called loopnet.com in the spring of 2009, put in “South Jersey,” and it brought up the Peter Shields. Jeff and I brought our spouses down for dinner to check it out, made an offer, settled on June 28, 2010, and our first weekend here was July 4 of last year. Obviously we had to wait until the season was over before undertaking the renovation. Nothing like jumping in on the
A healthy pet has lots to smile about.
TOP NOTCH A TREE CAREB ISA-Certified Arborist Matthew Notch Fully Licensed & Insured Free Estimates | Reasonable Rates
CONSULTING PRUNING & PLANTING CABLING & BRACING REMOVALS
427 James Street, Erma
Robert Panaccio, VMD Robert Moffatt, VMD Patricia Link, DVM 694 Petticoat Creek Lane, Cape May • 884-1729 • www.capemayvet.com
exit zero
1 1 0
481-7420 may/june
2011
HIENKEL ELECTRIC, LLC Over 30 Years Experience Serving Cape May County and the Islands No Job Too Small! Licensed and Insured
609-886-9015 NJ Lic# 13702A