Budget Breakdown: A Family’s Vibey New York Vacation Home Gets a Gut Reno for $1.2M

Chris Wershoven has fond memories of visits to his uncle’s home on the North Fork of Long Island, a modest and modernist boxy cedar-clad house built in 1971. They include big family get-togethers, fishing in the creek adjacent to the backyard, and boat rides to the Great Peconic Bay just beyond. After his uncle passed and the house went up for sale, he and his wife, Erika, who live in Brooklyn, purchased it in 2019 so that their children could experience some of the same joys.

The house was charming, but dated (think dark wood paneling and cloistered rooms) and needed repairs (the roof leaked and drafts abounded). They began speaking with architects about a renovation but didn’t find a good fit; most offered generic proposals or insisted on modifications mimicking the extravagant contemporary homes for which the region is known. "It’s a humble house, and we wanted to keep it a humble house," Erika says.

Then a burst pipe in 2022 led to significant water damage and lit a fire under their feet. "We also got a little bit of insurance money, and then we went into ‘let’s go’ mode," Erika says. The family resumed interviewing firms and found Leah Solk of Solk Architecture after reading about a renovation of hers in the New York Times. Her exacting attention to detail—especially around budgeting, planning, and communication—won them over. "Chris and Erika kept saying to me when they met me, ‘We just don't want to mess this up,’" Solk says.