From a drab sight to a pleasing vision in buttery yellow

(Lisa Poole for the Boston Globe)

944 Bay Road
Hamilton
Price: $549,000
Style: Colonial farmhouse
Built: 1920
Square feet: 1,890
Rooms: 7
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3
Sewer: Septic

The first time Paula Gaull saw her future home, she had a vision. Instead of a drab house surrounded by dirt, she saw a lovely yellow landscaped home. Paula is a professional home stager and she and her husband, Jamie, like to fix up older homes. Today, six years later, the house matches their vision.

"We're serial fixer- uppers," she said. In the past, they had renovated homes only on the inside, but this house "needed curb appeal, so we transformed it."

Inside, the former owners had renovated windows and the electrical, heating, cooling, and plumbing systems, and rebuilt the porch. The Gaulls renovated the kitchen, adding a skylight, new granite counters and island, and an extra-deep stainless steel sink. They also redid the lower bathroom with a granite vanity.

Inside, they painted throughout, mostly in neutral colors, and the outside is now her envisioned buttery yellow. They hired Amesbury landscape architect Jack Tremblay, who once worked on one of Martha Stewart's homes, to create a serene patio and garden off the kitchen. They planted grass and bushes out front.

"It's sort of like a modern old house," said listing broker Lesli Woodruff of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Beverly. "It has the charm of the period and modern conveniences buyers are looking for today."

The period charm includes decorative columns between the living room and dining room; a lovely window seat and bay window in the airy entrance hall; and a good-size kitchen, with white country cabinets, that opens onto the family room with its wood fireplace and vaulted ceiling with exposed beams. Bedrooms are good size and include picture rail molding.

The Gaulls are selling this house with some furnishings and artwork because their next project, an 1850s Greek revival in Marblehead, is smaller. There is an open house scheduled today from 1 to 3 p.m.

MINDY POLLACK-FUSI