When Bregitta and James Boyce first saw 200-year-old Dismont Cottage there were trees growing through the living room, the walls were black and just about everything needed replacing.They decided it was perfect.“It was a dream location and perfect for us,” said Mrs Boyce. “It had dock access for our boat. It was in a nice neighbourhood and it was close to town. You couldn’t get a better location in Bermuda.”Mrs Boyce is now a stay-at-home mother of their six-week-old baby daughter, Matilda; Mr Boyce is an accountant.They hired Mollie Bigley, an intern architect at Linberg and Simmons architectural firm to handle the renovations to the Pomander Road, Paget home.Four years later the house has been restored and renamed Fish Pond Cottage.Its restoration was recently acknowledged with an award for historic renovation from the Bermuda National.“The house was vacant for many years,” said Mrs Bigley. “When my clients bought it, it was disgusting on the inside with trees and plants growing inside and mould everywhere.”The place was in such poor condition the owners considered knocking the cottage down and starting over, but it had character.And from a planning permission standpoint, it was also easier to work with the current footprint than to start afresh.“If we tore it down and rebuilt we would have to abide by different setback rules,” Mrs Bigley said of planning requirements that dictate how close a property can be built to the water.“By keeping the structure, we were able to keep the original setback.”The renovations took over a year. Mrs Boyce said she never had any doubts, although her husband did.She was off the Island for much of the renovation process in 2009, and was busy planning their wedding.To add space to the house they added a verandah on the lower and upper floors, which increased their square footage by about a third.“Now they open the doors and use the verandah as much as any other room in the house,” said Mrs Bigley. “That was a huge bonus.”Mrs Boyce agreed: “It’s what I love about the house the most.“I think if I were to change anything, I would make a more cohesive design through the house. For example, the upstairs tiles don’t match the tiles downstairs.”They tried to stay true to the house in some ways, holding back a sample of the rotting mouldings around the house so that they could be faithfully reproduced.“My advice to other people considering a similar historic renovation would be to try to keep the character of the house intact,” she said.One of the most dramatic changes they made was to move the water tank closer to the road.This added more space to the downstairs level, allowing for a laundry room, office and guest room.“I think [it was] the hardest thing to do,” Mrs Bigley said.“It was really hard rock there, and we were working within the confines of a very narrow site.“The cesspit also had to be in an exact location in terms of how far it was from the water and property lines. It was a close fit, but we just made it work.”Solar panels to power the water heater were among some of the modern touches included. Mrs Bigley said it was a lesson that you didn’t always need to have a brand new house to install energy-saving devices.The inspiration for the house’s new name came from a large fish stocking pond beside the Boyces’ dock.“Basically, the fishermen would throw the fish they caught into the pond, still living,” said Mrs Bigley. “When they were ready to eat the fish, lobsters, crab or whatever, they would go to the pond, select something, kill it and cook it.”She was impressed by how well the house had stood up over time.Although the woodwork inside was rotten when they began, the roof was still largely intact, proving the worth of old construction techniques.Mrs Bigley has a master’s –degree in architecture from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and has been working in the field for the last five years.This was her second historic renovation, and the oldest house she has worked on so far.She found a real passion for historic renovation during the process.“I love doing them. It is really important that we keep these landmarks, and strive not to tear them down.“It was such a wonderful opportunity to do that with this house.“It really speaks to the idea that we can keep the historic nature of these homes but also update them so a modern family can live there.”