Drew and Jeanne Barber thought they’d discovered a heavenly place to boost their two younger kids after they toured a four-bedroom, 4,900-square-foot home on 11 acres in Farmington, Conn., in 2018.

A 1975 home with a gambrel roof that had been expanded with a number of additions, it supplied loads of area to unfold out, manicured gardens, a cute stone pool home for the summer season and — most necessary for Mr. Barber, an avid hockey fan — an enormous yard able to accommodating an ice rink within the winter.

But it surely additionally had one thing much less fascinating that the couple didn’t uncover till it was too late: a thriving colony of mice.

After closing that August for $900,000, they moved in with their kids, Camden and Colette, now 8 and 6, and have been glad sufficient for the primary couple of months. The inside of the home was dated, however Ms. Barber, 36, the founding father of Camden Grace Interiors, had little question that she may refresh it.

“Inside, it was fairly nation, which isn’t us in any respect,” stated Mr. Barber, 36, a lawyer. However he trusted Ms. Barber when she defined how she may give it a extra up to date, eclectic vibe with some easy beauty modifications. “It was enjoyable to see it by way of her eyes, and what it may very well be,” he stated.

However simply as Ms. Barber was starting work on the renovation plans, the uninvited visitors arrived. “Because the climate bought colder, we began noticing droppings and smells,” she stated.

And earlier than lengthy, rodents appeared to be nearly all over the place. “It turned out that the home was overrun by mice,” she continued.

It was then that Ms. Barber, who had no prior expertise with rodents, found one thing about herself: She has a deep-rooted, uncontrollable aversion to mice. “If I’m going within the basement and see a mouse in a lure, I scream like bloody homicide,” she stated. “I don’t know what it’s.”

So the couple put their renovation plans on maintain and referred to as pest-control corporations as an alternative of contractors. “The timeline was pushed again to take care of the mice,” Ms. Barber stated. “And to present me time to rethink if I may even proceed to reside there.”

After about six months of trial and error with varied corporations, they employed Catseye Pest Management to put in a metallic barrier the place the cedar-shingle siding meets the muse across the whole perimeter of the home, blocking the rodent freeway. By the point they lastly had reduction, and after a radical cleanup that included changing ruined insulation, they’d spent roughly $40,000.

With their partitions and ceilings reassuringly quiet, Ms. Barber returned to engaged on the renovation final 12 months, with a plan to make a sequence of modifications, room by room, over time.

The largest change was within the kitchen, which had knotty-pine cupboards and a beige-tile backsplash beneath a vaulted ceiling. Ms. Barber demolished all of it and took down a wall to open up sightlines to the yard and circulation round a breakfast desk. Then she put in Shaker-style cabinetry painted a lightweight grey in a brand new structure, with an enormous island on the heart.

Aiming for visible heat and character, she chosen three kinds of materials for the counters in numerous areas: Nero Mist granite, to prime many of the perimeter cupboards; white Carrara marble, for the island; and walnut, at a baking station. Then she added brass particulars: cupboard pulls and mesh door inserts; the strapping on the vary hood; and a classic Italian stand, discovered at an property sale, to carry glass canisters. Overhead, she put in rough-hewed wooden beams reclaimed from a Pennsylvania barn, to match the uncovered beams in different rooms.

In the remainder of the home, she stored parts she favored whereas reworking the look of every room with paint, wallcoverings and furnishings that displays her curiosity in design from varied intervals and locations.

“In my dream world, I’d have a midcentury-modern ski chalet and a very conventional Palm Seashore home,” Ms. Barber stated. “However I don’t, so I needed to combine types.”

Within the household room, she put in shapely classic Lucite chairs by Charles Hollis Jones, upholstered in sage-green material, round a pedestal desk that serves as a multipurpose station for folding laundry and taking part in board video games. In the lounge, she positioned a tufted pink couch and a willowy vintage rattan armchair atop a conventional Persian rug that belonged to Mr. Barber’s grandfather.

Within the meantime, Mr. Barber, who used to play aggressive hockey as a goalie and now coaches his son, started working on his personal dream tasks: mastering the artwork of yard rink development and constructing an all-weather observe room with artificial ice within the basement.

The couple have spent about $200,000 on enhancements and aesthetic modifications thus far, together with one different strategic change downstairs.

“The prior house owners had a number of murals painted on the partitions, together with one within the wine cellar, the place there was a bit of mouse painted on the wall,” stated Ms. Barber, who would relatively not be reminded of a number of the dwelling’s former occupants. “I informed the carpenter, ‘Put some millwork over that.’”

For weekly e mail updates on residential actual property information, enroll right here. Comply with us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.