Major renovations bring energy to Hearthstone Manor

New Life for an Old Building

The saying goes, “everything old is new again.” We’ve seen swing dancing, bell bottoms and popped collars all return to popularity. Now Bridgewater Retirement Community is giving new life to a favorite apartment building within the community: Hearthstone Manor.

“We felt it was time to renovate Hearthstone Manor,” says Elizabeth McNeal, Director of Marketing & Sales at Bridgewater Retirement Community. New life is coming to Bridgewater Retirement Community as many areas on campus have seen renovations. The Administrative Center including Garber Atrium was the most recent building completed along with exterior renovations of many homes within Bridgewater Village. Hearthstone was built in 1993 and some of the cosmetic features were beginning to show their age.

Fortunately, new Bridgewater Retirement Community residents do not have to settle for a turnkey apartment. New residents walk the space with a Bridgewater marketing counselor, then meet with a renovation specialist. Certain renovations are performed at no extra charge. Residents can also choose to pay for more enhanced options. For example, one of the first Hearthstone Manor residents to request extensive renovations had a row of kitchen cabinets removed. This opened up space to the living room, creating an effective “great room.” Installing a bar and pendant lights modernized the apartment further.

The resident’s creativity was, in McNeal’s words, “infectious.” “Other incoming residents saw the possibilities and wanted their future apartments to have the more open concept too,” she added. That chain of events, combined with the building’s age and several transitions, prompted a greater overhaul of Hearthstone Manor. Common spaces are undergoing extensive work. The community rooms will be getting a new look with new cabinetry and kitchen space to accommodate Hearthstone Manor resident gatherings. Bridgewater Retirement Community also plans on installing a large flat screen TV for movies, wood beams in the ceiling, and a stacked stone fireplace, a testament to the Hearthstone name.

New residents, too, can customize cabinets, floors, counters, and more as they move in. They will also be feeling the spirit of renewal for years to come, as Bridgewater prepares to renovate Maple Terrace & The Houff Community Center next and is constructing an all new building, The Grove, slated to open in 2019. McNeal notes that this spirit of making things new again is also infectious: “When you walk around our community, you can feel how we value our residents. To me, it feels just like our motto: ‘energy for life.’”