Interiors: A renovated gristmill in New York State

For Jan Green, the early 19th-century gristmill where she lives has been a muse and a refuge.

"I will never experience another building the way I have this one," says Green, a painter, whose dark, atmospheric work is inspired by the light on the surrounding landscape. "I paid attention to it, and it took care of me."

Green, 56, shares the 4,500-sq ft home with her second husband, John Toroni, 60. She first saw it in 1976, when she and Bruce Dragoo, a boyfriend she met at the California Institute of the Arts, moved to Delaware County, New York, after graduation. To earn a living, Dragoo began doing carpentry and repair work for David and Bonnie Montgomery, the mill's previous owners.

"It was covered with tar paper and was an absolute wreck," Green says.

The Montgomerys eventually left to be closer to their antique shop in Hudson, New York; they sold the mill to Green for $50,000 (31,500) in 1999.

Seated at an antique marble table in her open kitchen, she recalls the challenges involved in renovation, an ongoing project that has cost $325,000 (205,000) to date.

When she moved in, she said, "I could see the sky through the metal roof on the second floor." Now everything is double-insulated.

The foundations had problems as well, she says. "I invited 12 local men over, made an amazing dinner, and asked them each how they would fix it."

The solution came from Dale Kirby, a fourth-generation house-mover who specialises in concrete foundations.

Kirby stabilised the mill with a T-shaped form made of wood, and reinforced it with steel and concrete - all of it concealed underground to maintain the integrity of the original structure.

As for her gleaming floors, she explains: "On hands and knees, I scrubbed for months each floorboard until it was clean."

Roger Cardinal, an architect who worked with Green on the interiors, remembers "literally a half-inch of dust and dirt encrusted on the floors".

After they were spotless, Green used black tea to even out the discolourations.

Toroni, a teacher at the Jefferson Central School, traded labour with their contractor, Stuart Hamm, to save money. "As a way to lower the cost of building our deck, I painted all the windows in an old church for Stuart," he says.

Toroni is also responsible for the gardening and landscaping, and for building and repairing the stone walls and steps. And in an unusual twist, Dragoo, now 59 and an architectural designer in California, returned to supervise the renovation. (He and Green, who were together for 17 years and married for two, are now best friends. "She's my hero," he says.)

Dragoo redesigned the facade, with 10in board siding, a 4in bevelled batten on the top two storeys and "a much heavier window surround", he says, in keeping with the scale of the building.

Inside, he used old barn beams to construct the large bookshelf that serves as a room divider. He also added the trapdoor in the living room that opens to the space where the mill's wheel once ran. That area is a wine cellar.

All the work they have put into the mill has its rewards - for Green, in particular.

"I live and work here 365 days a year," she said. "And for eight months, it is dark and grey. I see huge icebergs in the stream, bobcats, bears, birds. Yet I feel safe and unthreatened, which is essential for me as an artist."

The New York Times 2010

This article was first published in The Scotsman, 30 October, 2010