Deborah and Chris Gagnon lived in Hoboken for a few years, but there was always a magnetic lure to come up the Palisades to Weehawken.
“I always wanted to live on Boulevard East,” Deborah Gagnon said. “It was funny, but I was at work [as an advertising copywriter] one day and a woman I worked with said she was selling her house in Weehawken. When she said it was on Boulevard East, we had to check it out.”
It didn’t take long for the newlyweds to make the Weehawken residence their dream home.
“We sealed the deal in the hallway of where we worked,” Gagnon said. “I was so excited.”
The Gagnons realized that their home required some major renovations.
“We still lived in Weehawken while the house was being worked on,” said Gagnon.
While renovating the house, the Gagnons stumbled across a room that was apparently an attic, but had the promise of becoming a good finished space.
“I wasn’t a decorator or anything, but I liked the room and thought it had promise,” Gagnon said.
At the same time, Gagnon was a big fan of the Home and Garden television network (HGTV). She would watch the network constantly, looking for different ideas how to spruce up her new home.
Then, a giant idea appeared. One of the network’s more popular shows is “Designer’s Challenge,” where three different designers look at an old home and come up with plans how they would redecorate the house or room in the house. If the network selects your home, then the designer does the plans for free, as long as the renovations are featured on the show.
Gagnon thought her attic space would be a perfect spot for the HGTV show.
“I wrote into them and told them about the house and the view we had of Manhattan,” Gagnon said. “Two days after I wrote the letter, I got a phone call from the show’s producer.”
View from the attic HGTV producer Laura Patterson told Gagnon that the timing was perfect, that the show was looking for projects on the East Coast, because so many of the previous features were done in the California area.
“So we sent them a tape of the house and the room, videotaped a lot about Weehawken and sent it in,” Gagnon said. “Within a week or so, they called me to tell me that they wanted to do it.”
Three different designers came to the Gagnon home and dreamed of what they could do with a room that apparently hadn’t been touched by anything but storage for more than 50 years.
“We found some interesting things up there,” Deborah Gagnon said.
The designers began the process in May of 2004. Two of the designers came from New York, the other from New Jersey. All three were briefed as to what Deborah and her husband, an information systems project manager for Marsh & McLennan Companies in Hoboken, wanted to see in the space.
Some cost “The designers all donate their time, and because we were selected, we didn’t have to pay for the designers’ work,” Gagnon said. “We had to pay for everything involved with the renovations, but had to stay within a budget of $30,000. Some of the other designers didn’t want to do the job, because the budget was too small. After the plans came back, we loved one and the work started right away.”
The work began in May and went through November of 2004.
After the work was completed, HGTV came back and shot the new family room. It features a little kitchen area, with cabinets and a sitting area, as well as a play room for the Gagnons’ two children, daughter Madison (age 4) and son Luc (15 months). Deborah Gagnon was pregnant with Luc when the process and the filming began.
The show finally aired Thursday night. The entire Gagnon family got together in the newly refurbished room to watch the national television unveiling.
“It’s really fantastic,” Gagnon said. “People say, ‘Oh, my God, I never would have thought of that myself.’ It turned out wonderful.”
Gagnon was also pleased that HGTV took the time to not only feature her majestic home, but also Weehawken as well.
“They not only focused the show on the home, but also where we live,” Gagnon said. “We’re proud of Weehawken and this is the house where we want to raise our family. It’s a great community for young families, raising children. The schools are great and we will send our daughter to the schools next year. I was so happy that they showed the neighborhood and the view.”
The new room was already put to good use, even before the family watched the grand premiere. Luc Gagnon’s christening party was held in the room this summer.