“I think the eclectic pulls everything together,” the 2002 Monroeville High School graduate said. “We have a little bit of everything.”
Years of planning have resulted in the home of Tyler and Jessica Wasserman catching the attention of a national magazine, Flea Market Home & Living. The 12-page article features their four-bedroom Ridgefield Township home and LynMarie’s Coffee, which Jessica Wasserman and her sister have run since November 2008.
Wasserman found many of the unique items in her house at garage sales or online. The kitchen features a 1920s cast-iron Kohler sink with that she found on eBay. The sink, which was already refurbished, is under a large window.
“I wanted it to have a lot of natural light,” Wasserman said, referring to the kitchen. “It was pretty much designed around that sink.”
The kitchen is part of what is essentially a grand room. The area includes a living room nook with a television, an eating nook, dining room and large windows.
Cathedral ceilings found in many modern homes don’t appeal to Wasserman, whose undergraduate degree is in early childhood education.
Wasserman, her husband and father, Ken Schafer, took about a year to create the house plans. About two years later, the Wassermans moved into the house which sits on family property. Schafer is a retired architect who worked for Janotta & Herner.
“We wanted a home large enough for our growing family, but small and coxy enough to grow old in,” Wasserman said in the magazine. “Our entire home is one huge DIY project.”
The house truly is a family project. For example, Tyler Wasserman and his father-in-law built the kitchen cabinets.
Jessica Wasserman praised her husband for supporting her decorating ideas.
“He’s my No. 1 fan,” she said. “I met my husband in college and dragged him here to old Monroeville.”
Her husband has put in a lot of hours into the couple’s finds.
The fireplace “surround” is made of white tiger oak, but it initially was covered by seven layers of paint. The couple bought it from Old School Warehouse in Monroeville.
“They ‘picked’ it from a mansion in Cleveland,” Wasserman said. “My husband spent about a week carefully peeling off the paint.”
In front of the fireplace is the lengthy dining room table, which Wasserman discovered on the Huron County Online Garage Sale on Facebook. It was being stored in a woman’s barn.
“I paid $100 for it,” said Wasserman, whose husband picked up the table an hour after it was posted for sale. “It’s a harvest dining room table.”
Hanging above the table is a chandelier, which Wasserman bought for $75 on craigslist. It had been in a home in downtown Sandusky.
“I added (more) crystals to it that I found in a yard sale,” Wasserman said. “I cleaned all the crystals. I used every little bit; I think I have five left.
“They all seem to go together,” she added.
The house has a wide front porch and a walk-out basement. Wasserman said the plan is for the basement to resemble an English pub, but still be a place where her husband can watch football.
“I want it to feel like it does up here,” she said.
It was Wasserman’s Instagram account (@jesswasserman) that caught the attention of the Flea Market Home & Living editor-in-chief, Lisa Marie Hart. Wasserman has about 33,500 followers.
“She emailed me through my coffee shop,” said Wasserman, whose Instagram account features her house and decorating ideas.
Hart interviewed Wasserman twice by phone, in late August and September, and asked her about her favorite room and piece of furniture plus some technical questions. Then the editor had Wasserman take photographs. The rural Monroeville woman sent Hart 30 to 40 pictures.
“After I took them, they said they were pretty good,” said Wasserman, so the magazine didn’t need to send a photographer. “I wanted to talk about everything. I wanted to tell her so many stories.”
Calling the house “our forever home,” Wasserman said she wants people to know they don’t have to spend a lot of money to make their houses look nice.
http://www.norwalkreflector.com/Home-Garden/2018/01/14/Wasserman-home-has-little-bit-of-everything.html?ci=stream&lp=1&p=