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Their remodeled Moorestown Italianate home got a fresh look, and then some

Though the Monahans had renovated several homes before, the 5,200 square-foot duplex was their biggest challenge.

Leslie and Tim Monahan sit in front of framed pieces of the original blueprint to their home with their dogs Nola (left) and Piper in Moorestown, N.J.
Leslie and Tim Monahan sit in front of framed pieces of the original blueprint to their home with their dogs Nola (left) and Piper in Moorestown, N.J.Read moreErin Blewett

There was a time when Tim and Leslie Monahan’s relatives and friends — and even the Monahans themselves — worried it would be “when pigs fly” before the couple could move into the Moorestown home in need of extensive renovations that they had purchased.

In 2012, with their old house sold, the Monahans had spent weeks in a Mount Laurel hotel with their then 11-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter.

Finally, a week before Christmas, they were issued a township certificate of occupancy approving work on the house they had spent six months renovating. At that point, 85% of the construction was complete.

It was enough to allow the Monahans to host a holiday dinner for 18 in the new kitchen-dining space with its blue AGA four-oven range, glass-tiled backsplash, white cabinetry and honed granite countertops.

These days visitors may notice two “flying pigs” at their now-pristine home: a pink metal, winged pig hangs from the porch, fashioned by the Monahans’ cousin, Patrick Day, and another, modeled from a propane tank and constructed by their nephew, Aaron Eglseda, peeks from hydrangeas.

The Italianate three-story home has gray siding, black shutters, white trim, and an original front door painted yellow. It would appear other features of the house built in 1914 survived, such as windows with diamond mullions facing the porch, a chestnut staircase and crown molding with the same dentil motif as the door.

The house had been converted into a duplex in 1941 and was in poor condition when the Monahans decided to change it back to a single-family home. Though they had renovated several homes before, the 5,200-square-foot duplex was their biggest challenge, Tim said.

He compiled a list of projects he and Leslie undertook, including removing eight Dumpsters of debris, tearing down walls and adding a support beam to create the kitchen-dining area, removing radiators and installing two-zone heating and air-conditioning, and replacing clapboard with HardiePlank siding over cellulite insulation.

The Monahans also put in 44 windows, including those custom-made with diamond mullions like a few existing originals; installed new crown molding; constructed five bathrooms; refinished and patched oak floors; and added glass French doors leading out to the Ipe wood deck.

The original chestnut staircase had been altered to accommodate the first-floor apartment entry. The Monahans found newel posts to rebuild it from Philadelphia Salvage.

When they met at Moorestown High School in the late 1970s, Tim was a senior and Leslie a junior. They dated a year and then went their separate ways. Tim married and had two sons before divorcing. Leslie stayed single and “had fun.” The two rekindled their relationship after running into each other in Stone Harbor and married in 1998.

In the couple’s center hall hang the home’s old blueprints, complete with rips and coffee stains.

“The Moorestown Historical Society researched the deed,” Tim said. “We are only the fourth family to live in the home.”

Tim, a commercial real estate broker, and Leslie, an events planner, kept a bedroom and bath suite on the first floor for visiting grandparents, along with a powder room.

Near the entry hangs a sampler made by Tim’s mother, Gene, with 1682, the date of Moorestown’s founding, stitched above two Revolutionary War-era houses. In the second-floor office are paintings by Tim’s father, Thomas.

The main bedroom on the second floor has a fireplace, an adjoining dressing room, and a bath with crown molding and a crystal chandelier. On the third floor, the Monahans raised the ceiling to create a great room with Ping-Pong and pool tables.

“We feel like we thoroughly rebuilt the home,” Tim said. “We made it stable and robust and energy-efficient and livable for modern family life.”

More projects are planned. “The backyard is calling for a pool,” Leslie said. And Tim would like solar panels and an irrigation system to water the crepe myrtle, lavender, day lilies, and hydrangeas in Leslie’s garden.

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