ummer is high season for family in Maria and Glenn Taylor’s
Connecticut farmhouse. Starting Memorial Day weekend,
the couple’s four kids, ages 20 to 33, come home for dinners
on the patio behind the barn and jam sessions on the lawn.
They always find cheese and olives on the table and colorful
antique glasses in the freezer, waiting for cold drinks. “If
they break, they break,” Maria says of the casual use of her
glassware collection.
In the Taylor household, life is lived informally. After the
couple remodeled the 1900 house they had eyed for years,
Maria, a real estate agent, made a promise: “We’re only going
to bring in things we love, and nothing extra.” She used the
fresh start to mix modem pieces with the couple’s favorite
antiques. “I wanted to do something I had never tried before.”
For Maria, the best thing isn’t the house itself but how
the kids, who live in different cities, meet up there on
weekends or their vacations. Everyone pitches in where
needed. In the kitchen, there are cooking sprees using
whatever is in season from a nearby farm stand. “There’s a
lot of chatting and lots of noise,” Maria says. After dinner, the
musical family gathers outside to listen to Luke, the
youngest, on his guitar. “It feels fantastic that our children
want to—and do—come home often,” Maria says. “This
house is about relaxing and reconnecting.”
Remodeling the house,
above,
was a family
affair. Glenn’s then-
85
-
year-old father was the
contractor and did much
of the work himself. The
Taylor kids and their
friends gather in an
informal outdoor seating
area,
right.
