>Second life for 240-year-old Ridgewood home
By Kathleen Lynn, McClatchy/Tribune news
12:09 p.m. CST, December 15, 2011
Julie Tung, a history major turned software executive, wanted a historic house to restore. Ed Schwartz, her boyfriend (now husband), wanted a house he could make energy-efficient. And it had to be near Glen Rock, N.J., where his son lives.
They found the answer in a 240-year-old Ridgewood, N.J., house in such woeful shape that it was at risk of being torn down. In 2006, the couple paid $843,000 for the house, which was built by members of the Westervelt family, early Dutch settlers.
Five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, the couple has a house that mixes old and new to make it sustainable. The chandeliers are antique, but their bulbs are energy-efficient LED or compact fluorescent. There are solar panels on the roof and the original pine on the floors.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/home/sc-cons-1215-old-house-20111215,0,5698024.story