Stylish, modern flair reinvigorates a historic treasure in Tinicum.

By Laura Matson Hahn
Photography by John Armich

“Do what you love – the money will follow” is a great-sounding axiom, even if it may not be a universal truth. But for real estate broker Art Mazzei, it’s certainly proved its merit. While beginning his career as a schoolteacher, he also dabbled in real estate, where he discovered another passion. One that would eventually lead to his own real estate brokerage and an engaging past time: Creating beautiful homes with his partner, George Kuebrich. For 23 of their 27 years together, Mazzei and Kuebrich have transformed six properties in the Hamptons, Palm Springs, New York and Bucks County. Their latest venture, a simple Cape Cod on six acres off a Tinicum back road, is now their Seventh Heaven.  

Ten miles north of New Hope, veering away from the river at Point Pleasant to the hilly interiors of Tinicum Township, I finally find the Mazzei-Kuebrich house on a dirt road alongside an unnamed creek. Framed by a split rail fence, the tributary is flanked by manicured lawns and an elegant, white footbridge. “It’s our access to the croquet greens,” Mazzei quips as he greets me in front of the modest home. Sitting on a rising knoll, the original 19th century stone house was doubled in size by previous owners and delivered all the living space Mazzei and Kuebrich sought. But it needed a lot of work outside and in to reflect their style.  
First, they addressed the bare earth outside the front door with a herringbone brick patio stretching the width of the house. Then the roofline was anchored with a substantial pergola. The bright white trim and Cape Cod gray house paint are in perfect pitch with the lush, green landscaping designed by Kuebrich, who, in addition to a full-time corporate job, has been studying architectural landscaping at Temple University. The combined effect is serene, but perhaps a bit too tame — too Martha Stewart — for this pair of go-getters. Until I stepped inside, where Mazzei and Kuebrich’s panache really takes flight.  

A dramatic impression
The sunny, square, open foyer pops with light and art. Stained glass is hung in front of the bay windows. A huge urn hugs a corner. Grand, stylized paintings of a Provincetown beach and robust roosters dominate the walls. And in the center sits a round, antique table with a fine example of woven basketry art underneath. They are clearly not afraid to mix texture, color and style. “We pretty much gutted this area,” Kuebrich says, “because when we took down a partial wall by the front door, the main house beam fell with it.” But after having reconstructed an 1830s farmhouse over 12 years, the surprise didn’t faze them. Mazzei and Kuebrich simply rebuilt it, along with the stairs, kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. No room escaped their tender finesse. Not even the numerous closets, which are now all lined with cedar planks.  

Fostering an easy flow
From the foyer, the floor plan circles around itself, creating a perfect party flow. To the right are a guest bedroom, a bathroom and the kitchen, but we enter to the left, into the former dining room that is now a media lounge, where a large flatscreen TV can be angled for viewing in the great room as well.  Mazzei and Kuebrich also refreshed the built-in wall cabinet with just the right shade of black for displaying their extensive pottery collection. 

Then we move to the large addition that runs the full depth of the house. With a cluster of sofas and a wood-burning fireplace at its center, this room is equally equipped for cozy nights and spirited weekend gatherings. Positioned at one end of the room are three Donghia upholstered chairs facing the front yard-French doors – perfect for morning coffee or late-night cordials —while at the other end stands a table-for-10 lit by a contemporary Italian chandelier made of Swarovski crystals dangling beneath a row of bare bulbs.  

“What really sold us on the house was this expansive room. Our place in Palm Springs is very open and airy and we like that way of life,” Mazzei says. “But we still have some of our old antiques mixed in.” As a result, the house speaks with a Modernesque accent —contemporary with bits and pieces of mid-century and antiques accompanied by a rich panoply of textured, Scalamandre fabrics and Stark carpets that defy the décor from being pigeonholed into one neatly contained category. 

No detail untouched
No doubt there is detailed evidence of experienced refurbishers throughout the home’s remodeling. When a new wall was built, Mazzei and Kuebrich added niches for displaying treasures. Every wall edge and eave was softened to a curve with a spackled half-round plastic strip, giving it an airbrushed effect. Even the baseboard-heating units were elevated to art by custom wood covers designed by Upper Black Eddy contractor Mark McBrian. 

Mazzei and Kuebrich also seized every opportunity to add an unexpected pop of color, such as the deep blue farm sink in the kitchen and a bathroom countertop of terracotta-poured concrete. But their vision was not limited to the house, for an entire other world awaited their attention across the back lawn, where a custom pool alongside a converted barn was to become the perfect fundraising venue for their many causes and charities.  

Lounging in style
Picturesque is an apt description of the setting, with a row of river birch marching up one side of the lawn to a line of Carpinus Betulus trees that are traditionally clipped like hedges, defining the pool’s front decking. It sits in what used to be a grassy area for the cows that previously occupied the barn. But it is now a cool retreat coped with variously shaded blue stone around the blue-gray salt-water pool and edged with stucco walls of varying heights. 

With a hot tub at one end and a mellifluous stone sculpture at the other, it looks like an outdoor space at a contemporary art museum — spare and stylized in dark gray and blues, elevating the eye from point to point. Even the challenge of hiding the pool equipment was met with aplomb with a triangle of purple-painted stucco over cement block jutting skyward beyond the pool’s back wall.  

Home away from home
The barn, now a guesthouse and party space, is the realm of their beloved dogs, Spartacus and Maximus, who greet me as a long lost friend. Mazzei and Kuebrich spend most of their evenings in the two-story, retrofitted barn with their favorite canines. 

Only roughly converted when they bought it, they created two bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs as well as a great room upstairs with every convenience necessary for large gatherings of friends and colleagues. Picture windows at either end illuminate the top floor’s post-and-beam construction. In the tradition of a Parisian flat, the room houses a kitchen, a long dining table with large orb lights, a conversation area around the rebuilt fireplace and a grand piano. 

The wall of shelves stretching the width of the room delivers display space for all their memorabilia, including every Hardy Boys book Mazzei read as a kid. “We employed Brian Murphy for this project,” Mazzei says. “He’s the best barn guy in the area,”Kuebrich adds.

Familiar surroundings
Oddly enough, when Mazzei and Kuebrich first moved to Bucks County many years ago, it was to Tinicum. But then they took on the farmhouse outside of Riegelsville. “We loved the quiet up there,” Mazzei says. “But after 12 years, we needed a new project. And with clients north and south, Tinicum called us home again.”

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   Posted by charita@outdoorchandelier | March 27, 2009, 10:02 pm