But, as all parents learn sooner rather than later, the best laid plans often go awry.

"Did you turn it up again?" Weber asks her youngest, who stares transfixed at the television set blaring Barney in the living room. "You have to keep it down or move closer."

The Weber kids are home this Thursday, which -- given the precipitation and bone-chilling cold thus far this winter -- may become more common as the season progresses. Several inches of snow have blanketed Hillside Avenue overnight.

The sun, however, rather than making the white blindingly bright, casts a warm glow. Neighborhood teens walk down the middle of the street, shovels slung over their shoulders in the hope of earning some quick bucks. The snow is, after all, powder light and easy to lift.

The street is peacefully quiet, save for a scrape here or there as a few neighbors clear out their driveways and sidewalks.

But sound abounds inside 61 Hillside. The Weber's bichon frise, Louis, barks and growls in greeting. The purple dinosaur's voice echoes through the first floor. A tall Christmas tree stands in the corner of the living room, in front of the high windows. The scene, which would appear completely commonplace on a typical snow day in a typical house, seems anything but in this particular house.

That's because from the street, this huge, white, Victorian home with a wraparound porch looks like it's part of another era entirely. A time when a horse-drawn carriage might have clip-clopped down the gas-lit street into town, just a few blocks south.

The inside of the home does nothing to disappoint the imagination. The enormous Dutch front door -- with an equally large storm door -- swings opens the foyer. The eye wanders from the magnificent fireplace to the window seat beneath a stained-glass window and back again, struggling to determine which is the more striking piece. It's a tough call.

A crystal chandelier hangs from above -- its sister hangs in the dining room. A comfortable-looking sofa set sits beneath it. It is perhaps the only piece in the room that looks decidedly 20th (or even 21st) century.

Walk directly down the hallway, which leads to a back staircase, and you'll bump into the large, airy and bright kitchen. Weber spends a goodly amount of time each day in the golden-yellow room, digging through one of the many pantries in search of a can of this or a dinner plate, fixing a cup of tea or preparing dinner for her brood.

Speaking of which, her youngest walks in, snow pants swishing. "What are you after, Fiona?" Weber asks, as the little girl drags a kitchen chair over to one pantry door. After her mother pours her a bowl full of potato chips to match her older sister's, Fiona ambles off, satisfied.

Despite the phenomenal impression the house makes, one can't help but wonder how a woman juggles raising three children, caring for a husband, two pets and running a custom window-treatment business on the side. And that's not counting nonstop renovations, stripping, painting, and repairing of the house, or even everyday things that need attention, such as laundry, cleaning and cooking.

"That's been the hardest thing about trying to tackle things," Weber acknowledges, cradling the family's Cornish Rex cat, Marcel, in her lap at the kitchen table, "is that there's only so much you can take, especially with day-to-day living, and three kids."

But evidently, exhaustion is not part of Weber's vocabulary. The former legal secretary is a native of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Great Britain, and is no stranger to the phrase "fixer-upper" or hard work. Growing up in England, her family had a penchant for older homes.

Edison native Richard Weber's life wasn't much different. His grandfather built his own home, Weber says, and Richard learned a lot from him. But that doesn't mean that he -- an insurance-defense attorney with the law firm of Maloof, Lebowitz, Connahan & Oleske in Chatham and New York, and a Metuchen councilman -- has any more free time than his wife.

Add to that their children's own busy schedules, from baseball and soccer games to birthday parties and playdates, and it's difficult to imagine the couple finding any time to devote to a fixer-upper. Especially the three story, six-bedroom variety.

It's definitely, Virginia says, a "team effort." "We are weekend warriors," she adds, referring to the Home & Garden Television do-it-yourself program of the same name. "You just fit things in where you can."

Perhaps even more amazing is that this isn't the Webers' first renovation. The stately house on Hillside is the fourth Metuchen home the couple have completely transformed in seven years.

They moved into the first, a small home on Wilmer Place, in 1996. But as their family began to grow, it became painfully obvious that they needed a bigger house. They eventually moved on to Amboy Avenue. Around the same time, they purchased a second house, adjacent to their home, which they simultaneously renovated. They still own this property and rent it out.

And they weren't strangers to the Hillside Avenue house either.

"You'd go by and you'd see the column on the third floor was tilted," Virginia says about her current home. "And you'd say, 'Oh dear, the poor house.' And the next time you'd go, you'd see it tilted even more, and you'd say, 'I wonder if those people would ever sell it.'

"A lot of things went into making the decision (to buy the house)," Virginia says. "And we knew we had a lot of work. We still went for it."

They moved in August 2003, becoming only the third owners of the home. (The first, ironically enough, was another family by the name of Weber, with the same spelling, even.) Then, certain problems became clear. Or dim, as the case was.

In the stark light of day it's hard to imagine that the house, considered cutting-edge and modern in its day, is sorely lacking in the lighting department. Other than the kitchen, there are few outlets to be found throughout the house. Still, it's hard to not be impressed by the fact that the installation of the home's electrical system -- one of the first in Metuchen, making it a novelty -- was supervised personally by Thomas Edison.

There are plenty of other things that occupy the Webers' thoughts, however. Right now, in the dead of a bitter-cold winter, Virginia is daydreaming about all the planting and gardening she'll do come spring.

Richard, meanwhile, has parlayed his love of history and old homes into pursuing landmark preservation designations in Metuchen, his wife says.

Apparently restoration is in the Webers' blood, and not even the most daunting of projects will keep them from working hard. After all, says Virginia, it's all part of the challenge of "making things seem like a home again."