FIRST IMPRESSIONS
First Impressions
A home with a sunny disposition
By Deborah Salomon • Photographs by John Gessner
Who says you can’t tell a book by its cover? Or, for that matter, a house by its façade?
This one — with bright yellow clapboards, bumpy fieldstone walkway and fanciful front porch — almost shouts “Welcome!” from the end of a long wooded driveway opening onto a busy road. Carry-On Cottage, its name posted on a tree, was built in 1937, and sounds as upbeat and admired as one of its previous owners, Miss Hall, a legendary fourth-grade teacher.
Further provenance is unnecessary. Given the enthusiasm and skills of owners Linda and Larry Wolf, how could living there not be a sunny experience?
Linda and Larry were high school sweethearts in Connecticut, married during college, lived in Boston, then on Linden Road in Pinehurst. Larry, fit and perpetually tanned, directed tennis programs at Pinehurst Resort and elsewhere. Linda attended the New York School of Interior Design. Renovation spins their wheels. They bought Carry-On Cottage in 2005. “A home base for our three kids,” Linda explains, as well as a project worthy of their skills.
The three kids now arrive with five grandkids to an expanded homestead that fairly oozes personality expressed in bright colors, family memorabilia, Design Market “finds” like metal end tables painted bright red, and the occasional surprise: Linda points to two interior split (“Dutch”) doors, left behind by an owner with tall dogs who objected to being shut away. A framed sign from The Tennis General Store recalls a previous business venture. A tiny table set for chess reminds Larry of his parents, and a stormy seascape by son Tyler represents Linda’s bout with chemotherapy.
Renovations, as expected, went way beyond cosmetic. All systems needed replacing. The one bathroom begged an upgrade but in 1930s black and white, with beadboard panels. Two additions happened at separate times. The first resulted in a small TV den adjoining the kitchen, the other a master suite/sitting room/spa bathroom. New window frames were made to match the old. Hooked rugs over original knotty pine floors add character, as do glass doorknobs. The armoire was rescued from the Pinehurst Hotel, painted black and distressed, while the carved settee came from grandparents.
A four-poster bed, antique quilts and family photos complete the retro charm.
Linda didn’t shy away from splashy floral upholstery in the living room, the colors echoing her and Tyler’s paintings, several depicting their favorite hydrangeas, others Cape Cod scenes mounted on deep-turquoise walls, a color furloughed from the modern décor palette.
For Larry, wood is a hot topic. Tennis, it seems, isn’t his only game. Observe the massive, rough-hewn corner cupboard in the small TV room. “I made it for the children’s toys,” Larry says, with modest pride. He also made their dining room table, a patio picnic table and a long bench. The edge of his low coffee table bears teeth marks left by the grandchildren. Other handiwork, Linda says, “was made to look old,” while some light fixtures surely arrived by FedEx.
For the last century renovators have come to lavish space and funds on kitchens. Jumbo appliances circling islands weren’t an issue in the thrifty ’30s. Linda and Larry’s kitchen, a carefully planned second renovation completed during the COVID shutdown, is a small pass-through done in black and off-white, with a two-seat breakfast bar. For this cooking couple, more important than the latest gadget is a cookbook written and illustrated by the Wolf children, a compilation of their Grandma Bonnie’s recipes. Sausage gravy, anyone?
Despite the attention lavished on the interior Larry calls the cottage an “outside house” where, weather permitting, Christmas brunch is served on the patio. His al fresco activities include replanting donated dead chrysanthemums which, few people realize, are perennials that will bloom again. Larry’s raised beds yield tomatoes and peppers, which he pickles.
The Wolfs, soon celebrating their 50th anniversary, have accomplished what many couples desire without achieving: “This will be our retirement home,” Linda says. A manageable size, convenient location, repository of cherished family artifacts, informal and sturdy on a big lot with a firepit and a shed.
To seal the deal, the exterior glows an appropriate sunshine yellow. Now who says you can’t judge a book by its cover?
