St Michaels Day School, Newport Tent, P.J.R. Construction, Venue, Bed and Breakfast, Hotel, Lodging, Newport / Middletown Rhode Island, Villa 120

So where was I............... I found Villa 120, I knew no one in Newport but as fate would have it, whilst signing my children up for schooling I started talking to the admissions secretary, a wonderful warm and caring person who was a true local and knew another old Newporter - Bill Corcoran of Newport Tent; Bill knew a wonderful dynamic and highly successful lady (Stasia Anthony of Equisite Events) who came from another local family and she knew Peter Rapossa of P.J.R. Construction. That is Newport, a small circle of highly skilled, caring and helpful locals, one ripple and before you know it you are put in touch with a team of skilled people. I met up with Peter Rapossa one evening and his son Eric, after showing him around the Villa he later told me he thought I was absolutely mad!  However, Peter was a good listener, I knew what I wanted and since I was still living in the UK would have to visit for a week at a time - source, choose and leave Peter with a vision for him to manage - I was very lucky to meet a skilled, trustworthy and experienced team. We began with pulling out the old rusty kitchens that were pushed into small areas with folded doors covering them in the top four bedrooms, all bathrooms had to be removed, a wardrobe in the Sapphire room, the broken jacuzzi in the ground floor office, another wardrobe and a couple of partition walls. Painters were the hardest to find - and all the wallpaper had to be removed, rubbed down and a new pallete chosen. The kitchen had been pretty non existent - filthy, old and barely functional.  The basement was full - full of trash.  The chandeliers had been replaced with home depots cheapest light fixtures - the closets full of sheets and towels were also full of mouse droppings, and filthy.  I could not believe my realtor had said on closing (I was in London) the Villa looks great and is ready for business!!!!!!!!!!! So we covered what was good and put it into the centre of each room - the rest was pulled out and thrown into the shoot - the front deck was pulled up the kitchen ripped out and all window dressings pulled down.  The Villa was bare, cold and lifeless. Over the next three months I would arrive, work to mid-night, wake at 4 a.m. and start over - Peter was great, emails, phone calls keeping me up-dated on works.  I would arrive and we would go from one store to another, I would choose colors for the walls, units for the kitchen, fixtures for the bathrooms and then leave hoping it would all work out!!!  The hardest job being choosing and leaving.  At the same time I was renovating a one bedroom apartment in Putney London - also living there with my two girls and having to put wardrobes in the bedroom - change the bathroom and kitchen to opposite sides of the apartment and living there whilst the work was going on! Can you imagine, buying a business which had to be bought prior to my visa being accepted and not knowing if it would be accepted and working on two renovations side by side with two daughters - we were a team and together we got through it - keeping a sense of humor is key! Before photos coming tomorrow!