Today, Wednesday Oct. 16, marks the day that six Fairfield students are finally moved into the beach house of their dreams. For the past month and a half, seniors Brittanie Millang, Allie DeLuca, Elizabeth Girgenti, Grace Leonnig, Pierelle Eppie and Jazmin Maldonado have been living at the Fairfield Inn on Reef Road, awaiting the reconstruction of “Southern Comfort,” the ocean front home located at 705 Fairfield Beach Road, from the extensive damage it received during Hurricane Sandy.
The students originally made the decision to live in “Southern Comfort” during late September of 2012, signing the lease and making their first down payment. One month later, the home was nearly destroyed beyond repair by Sandy. Despite the vast amount of damage caused by the storm and an option to back out of the lease, they elected to remain as the eventual tenants of the property after being assured by their landlords that the reconstruction of the home would be completed by the beginning of the school year. Unfortunately, due to numerous unexpected delays, the home has just now become livable again.
According to the girls, they received inconsistent timetables from landlords Sue Gould and her husband regarding the reconstruction process. They said that the landlords first informed them the project would be completed by May 1, which soon became June 1, then July 1, then Aug. 1, etc.
“We really weren’t concerned until we finished school,” said Girgenti. They even attempted to find another home to rent, but were unsuccessful.
When the six girls found out that their home was not going to be ready by Sept. 1, they made the decision to temporarily live at the Fairfield Inn for what they believed was going to be two weeks at most. A month and a half later, they finally were able to move out of the Inn, and they couldn’t be happier.
All of the six girls agree that living at the Fairfield Inn has been a struggle. Due to obvious space constraints, they had to leave
most of their belongings at home, only bringing clothing and other essentials to school this fall. Their room at the Inn consisted only of beds, air mattresses, and department store style clothes racks. They were forced to do laundry at friends’ homes, and lack of a workspace made it impossible to study. The size of their living space also meant there was virtually no privacy. Girgenti said that “our friendships have been risked,” as a result of their living situation.
The girls said they felt “out of place” living in a hotel, and that they were left out of hosting many senior events at the beach. They received noise complaints from neighbors at both the Fairfield Inn and “Southern Comfort,” due to the noisy reconstruction of the home. There have even been issues with people breaking into the previously unfinished house. According to the students, the hardest part of living at the Inn was the lack of a kitchen, forcing them to eat out every meal, which was an unexpected financial burden.
During the weekend of Oct. 5, the six students were required to move out of the Inn to accommodate reservations made for Fairfield’s Rugby Alumni Weekend. Literally homeless, they were forced to live with friends at Lantern Point. According to the girls, their landlord was never concerned with the fact that they had nowhere to live. As bad as it was living at the Inn, the students were happy they could still live at the beach, as opposed to living on campus or somewhere further from Lantern Point. Overall, the girls stated that this situation was far from what they expected when they decided to live at the beach in Sept. of 2012.
“We’ve just had the worst luck ever,” said Millang.
Gould started the reconstruction process in early Nov. of 2012 by applying for the necessary building permits from the Town of Fairfield, which they did not receive until close to March of 2013.
According to Gould, many landlords from the area were unsure how to approach the rebuilding of Fairfield Beach, and were aided by meetings organized by the Town of Fairfield that helped direct the property owners throughout the process of restoring their community.
Gould said that it has been a “very lengthy process because we didn’t know what we were doing. We had never done this before.”
General contractor Fred Genestra, owner of F&G Construction, oversaw the reconstruction of the home. According to Genestra, the Goulds “couldn’t have got it done faster,” and even spent extra money to expedite the reconstruction process.
First, extensive water damage made it necessary for the first floor of the home to be completely gutted, Gould explained. Wolfe House & Building Movers from Pennsylvania were then hired to lift and move the home back away from the water.
Next, pilings were installed under the supervision of structural engineers to lift the house to FEMA standards, a certain height above sea level. In order to install the pilings, soil probes were necessary to see how far the pilings had to be set into the earth. Numerous land surveys were done, and after the house was finally lifted, it was discovered that the entire subfloor had to be replaced. Overall, the house has an entirely new first floor.
Gould has owned and rented “Southern Comfort” to Fairfield students for over twenty years, and in all of her years as a landlord, Sandy was the most devastating storm she has ever seen. According to Gould, the house was originally named “Comfort,” but was renamed by students in honor of Southern Comfort Liqueur. Gould said that choosing to rebuild was not a hard decision, however she “would never do it again,” agreeing that the process has been “very frustrating for everyone involved.”
The six girls are all relieved now that they are moved in to their home. DeLuca said that the entire community was very supportive throughout the move, and “we’re all really excited to decorate our rooms.” They all can agree that “Southern Comfort” finally feels like home.
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