Ogunquit News
Ogunquit innkeepers win $10,000 home makeover
By C. Ayn Douglass
John and Meghan Hubacz, pictured here, have been selected to win a $10,000 living room makeover sponsored by Accent Home and Garden magazine and Abode Home Furnishings and to have their story shared in a special magazine feature this winter.
Courtesy photo
John and Meghan Hubacz purchased the cottage about three years ago and have been investing hundreds of hours of sweat equity into making it home ever since.
The home, originally sited on Green Needle Lane in Ogunquit 40 years ago, was moved to a lot on Tatnic Road 10 years ago. John and Meg, who are innkeepers at Above Tide Inn on Beach Street in Ogunquit, have been wintering in the cottage for the last three years, doing primary repairs in the off-season winter months.
"The walls were paper thin," Meg said. "You could see your breath in the air in the living room. We lived in it part-time after the inn closed in the winter and we went to bed awfully early."
As John made improvements on the structural part of the renovation, Meg realized they hadn't given very much thought to furniture - particularly living room furniture. In looking for design ideas, she happened to see a contest in the August edition of the Portsmouth, N.H.-based Accent Home and Garden magazine for a $10,000 makeover. The contest was co-sponsored by Portsmouth's Abode Home Furnishings, formerly known as Pier 1.
Meg immediately got busy "feverishly working on a 20-page storybook" describing the project. She enlisted the help of her twin sister, who inserted cartoon characters into the Shutterfly project.
"I think the cartoon characters were really what impressed them," she said.
Meg was informed last Thursday, Sept. 28, that hers was the entry chosen for the living room makeover from the hundred that were submitted. Since then, progress on the home has gone into warp speed.
"The painters are coming in on Friday and Saturday; on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the designer, Randy Trainor, is coming in with the color specialist, Lee Perreault, and we'll be moving in in two weeks," Meg said.
Just in time, according to Meg, as the Above Tide Inn closes on Monday.
As winners of the makeover, John and Meg will receive $5,000 in furniture, carpeting, window treatments and accessories from Abode Home Furnishings; $2,000 in paint and supplies from A&M Paint and Wallpaper Corporation in Portsmouth; $2,000 in audio-video furnishings from DC Audio & Video Service in Portsmouth, and the expertise of both the design consultant and the color specialist.
"The best thing that came out of it is that my living room is going to be livable," Meg said.
The makeover will be featured in the January-February issue of Accent Home and Garden magazine.
