Artist Laurie Simmons never thought that a brick Georgian would ever be her dream house. Nevertheless, when in the fall of 2000 she was asked to design a house from the ground up and she ended up with a brick Georgian in northwestern Connecticut, all her prior ideas disappeared.

When she first entered the door she immediately fell in love with the house. The house was built around the turn of the last century and had been used until recently, serving as the administration building for the Marvelwood School, a private boarding school. The property also includes an adjacent barn housing a cafeteria, science labs, music rehearsal rooms and a half basketball court.

Simmons was already mesmerized by this place and she managed to convince her husband to buy it. Now the barn has been turned into a painting studio and the basement is dedicated to art storage. When they bought the house, it was only an empty shell. They managed to turn it into their dream home, to make it inviting and cozy and everything they ever wanted.

Simmons even came up with the idea of naming each room. It seems that dream can change after all and this is the living proof. The new owners are very happy with their new home, even though if asked a few years ago they would have said this couldn’t possibly happen.