A Brooklyn couple bought a run-down, 180-year-old farmhouse in the Hudson Valley. More than 13 years later, they say the renovation process ‘really never has ended.’

The couple was struggling to make sense of the world and realized it was time to find a place of their own, O’Sullivan told Insider. “We were just feeling defeated, watching our savings disappear into nothing. I felt this draw to buy land because at least land was real whereas everything else felt volatile and imaginary,” O’Sullivan said.

It was around that same time that her Etsy business , where she sold colorful handmade patchwork sweaters, took off, O’Sullivan said: “It went kind of viral, so we were able to buy a house. ” The house had been with the same owner for the past 60 years and was in need of an update. Even so, the couple felt the Hudson Valley property had the most potential for its price tag, O’Sullivan said.

It came with a pond and was unlike anything they were used to back in New York City. Since it was right after the economy collapsed, the couple was also able to benefit from the crashing prices, she added. O’Sullivan says that they paid about $220,000 for the property, which was something they “couldn’t have afforded before.

” “The windows didn’t open, there was no insulation, and none of the pipes were quite right,” O’Sullivan said. Beyond the cosmetic changes, the couple had to redo almost everything in the house, including the roof, the foundation, and the septic system, she said. And despite the bright exterior color scheme, painting the house was the easiest part of the entire process.

“It was actually not that long, probably the weekends over the course of a month,” O’Sullivan said. “But that’s what people respond to and are most curious about. Nobody’s ever asked me how long my septic system took, even though that was a lot more work.

” “We just moved into the old house and hung up a bunch of tarps to protect ourselves from the dust. We started pulling up the linoleum floors on the first night of the closing,” O’Sullivan said. For many years after, it felt like they were living in a never-ending construction project, she added: “Everything looks finished now, but for a long time there were just parts of the house that were taped off and construction dust blowing around.

” “We had friends who helped us out, and we definitely hired professionals — I certainly didn’t put in my own septic system,” O’Sullivan said. “Even if I was just pulling out the nails and painting, I never detached from the process. ” Some of the items they found include medical ointment, old letters, and a vintage bottle of port wine.

There were other surprises along the way: One of the rooms had walls stuffed with newspapers in place of proper insulation, O’Sullivan added. “I walked into the paint store and said ‘Give me one of everything!'” she said. Just like the patchwork sweaters that she makes, the facade of the house is painted in the colors of the rainbow.

Something most people don’t pick up on when they see the exterior is that black is “by far the color that’s the most used,” O’Sullivan said. She used twice as much black paint as any other color because she painted a black frame around each color block to make them all stand out. “Originally, it was the kind of house that you would drive by and never notice.

Now, everyone slows down and even stops to stare,” she added. Over the years, previous owners tacked on rooms to the home; there are now 10 rooms in the house now, plus the basement. “It’s kind of patchwork, which is cool because I make patchwork for a living, so aesthetically, I really relate to it,” she said.

The property came with five crumbling outbuildings, which the couple has also reconstructed. The couple decorated each room in the house in a different theme. They’ve filled the home with trinkets and antiques they acquired from their travels and vintage stores.

“I love found objects. I work with recycled sweaters so I’m always at the thrift store, and I love finding things and sticking them together to see which iteration creates a sense of magic,” O’Sullivan said. “The kitchen went through so many iterations before it finally turned all turquoise,” O’Sullivan said.

“I feel it’s dramatic because everything else in the house is quite colorful and then suddenly there’s a room that’s all one color. ” “A lot of it is stuff we’ve made out of bits and pieces of architectural salvage. For example, our bed is made out of old pieces of carved wood from church altars,” O’Sullivan said.

One thing O’Sullivan’s proud of is that nothing in the house is mass-produced: “There’s nothing from Ikea in this house. There’s nothing from West Elm. You can’t order anything on the internet that you find here.

” “I’ll take all mismatched chairs and tables and then paint and upholster them all in the same way. So while the shapes are different, the color scheme unifies them,” O’Sullivan said. O’Sullivan likens the stairs to the work of Dutch artist MC Escher, who’s known for his drawing of crisscrossing staircases that connect in an impossible triangle .

The stairs are a tripping hazard, so O’Sullivan put a bar at the bottom of the stairs that she can grab onto if she falls. So far, no one has gotten hurt, she added. Take, for example, the “Jungle Room,” where she keeps a framed collection of insects.

It looks like there’s a lot going on, but in order to balance things out, there’s no furniture in the room, she said. “It’s super decorated, but I also really try to maintain clarity in the things I have,” she explained. “I love empty space.

I feel very triumphant when I get rid of a piece of furniture. ” In Ecuador, people burn effigies during New Year’s Eve to symbolize getting rid of the past. These effigies are often dressed in old clothing and wear a papier-mâché face mask.

The layouts of the rooms are not permanent — O’Sullivan said she’s always switching things up: “I get kind of bored. Nothing stays for more than a couple of years before I rearrange it. ” When a tornado ripped through the area two years ago, part of the house was damaged, O’Sullivan said.

During the repair works, she decided she wanted to add a wall of windows to the side of the attic, which led out to a balcony. “It’s pretty cool to suddenly have windows and natural light after 10 years,” she added. “Every couple of years, an adjacent property comes up for sale.

I figure out some reckless scenario that allows me to buy it and then I work out how to pay it off,” O’Sullivan said. She currently owns four adjacent properties apart from the main compound, which amounts to around 70 acres in total, she said. “It’s getting pretty big and it’s cool that I have rental properties.

I feel like it’s a place where my friends are going to end up living,” she added. “I’m pretty sick of it — at this point, I want to sell it all and live in a condo,” O’Sullivan said. The house is in a state of constant flux, and the couple still spends time fixing up the home today.

That, O’Sullivan said, has been every week of their life for the past 13 years. And even for the highly creative, that kind of maintenance can get tiring. “We were too naive to understand how big a project it was.

We thought we could just paint it and it would be fine,” she added. “I wouldn’t buy this house again, now that I know. “.