The original occupants were sisters Alice ( the future Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt ) and Maude Gwynne, according to Judy Chace, an agent with Residential Properties Ltd., which has listed the house for sale. The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

About a year ago, Sunnymead, an estate in the Pier district of Narragansett, was a hive of activity, during a renovation that involved dozens of workers inside and outside the 17-room Victorian mansion at 106 Central St. owned by Peter and Melanie Eleftherio.

The yard was torn up, as men on one side of the house prepared to install a swimming pool, and a group on the other side was searching for an underground oil tank and investigating problems with the sewer line.

Inside was a storm of dust and noise. And at the center of it all was Melanie Eleftherio, guiding the operation to bring the 1887 house back to its former glory. The original occupants were sisters Alice ( the future Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt ) and Maude Gwynne, according to Judy Chace, an agent with Residential Properties Ltd., who has listed the house for sale.

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Today, Sunnymead is once again as serene and peaceful as a soft summer breeze. The Eleftherios, who are professional high-end “flippers,” and their two sons are enjoying what may be their only summer in the house, which has been transformed into a comfortable, modern home with period style. Last week, the Eleftherios and a buyer signed a purchase and sales contract for Sunnymead, which was on the market for $1,995,000.

The last time Sunnymead was offered for sale, in January 2005, it was priced at $1.5 million, but it lingered on the market for more than two years, and there were several price cuts before the Eleftherios bought it last year for $990,000. Melanie Eleftherio acted as her own general contractor in the renovation, as she always does. She did not want to reveal the exact cost of the project, but said it could have been a $1 million job “in inexperienced hands.”

The roof and all the major systems, plumbing, electrical and heating, have been replaced, and air conditioning added. The hydro-air system has two boilers. An underground oil tank was discovered and removed, and problems with the sewer line have been corrected. Two new fireplaces have been added, and there are an additional five fireplaces, though the chimneys serving these older fireplaces have been capped. Vinyl siding was removed and underlying shingles were torn off and replaced with new cedar shingle siding. The front porch of the house was restored; part of it had been removed years earlier, and Eleftherio used an old photograph of the house as a model in rebuilding it.

The sunny downstairs is still huge, with 12-foot ceilings adding to the spacious character, but several rooms were reconfigured. The result is an open, modern, airy feel, but there are still spaces that invite someone to curl up with a book or have a private conversation. The main living room was actually downsized, and seems more intimate as a result. Despite the sheer size of the house — 7,200 square feet on 3 floors, with 8 bedrooms, 5 full bathrooms and 1 half bath — it still seems more like a family home than a fussy showplace, with plenty of Victorian-style nooks and crannies, including a pantry off the kitchen. Eleftherio has also decorated the house in a clean, sophisticated style. Many walls are painted in soft shades of blue, green and cream, sky and water colors.

The kitchen has been redone with custom-made cabinets painted an unusual ice blue, a massive six-burner stainless steel Thermador range, a stainless Viking refrigerator, and marble countertops. One exit leads to a mudroom, a laundry room and a back door to a porch facing the pool, which is now framed by fencing and a landscaped yard.

A 1970s-era sunroom at the rear of the house was redone so that a back wall of windows is now a fireplace surrounded by bookshelves; an existing window seat and skylights were retained, creating a family room that looks more like the original part of the house. Woodwork was painted white, as it is in the other rooms.

The new master bedroom suite has a balcony in the turret in the front of the house, in addition to another room that has been turned into a dream closet and dressing area, and a master bathroom with a separate shower and deep soaking tub. Another guest room has a private bathroom, and another bathroom connects to two other bedrooms. There are five bedrooms on the second floor, and six rooms plus another bathroom and kitchenette on the third floor.

The property also includes a detached three-car garage behind the house with a separate driveway. Eleftherio had considered renovating this building, which includes a small bathroom and another room, but ultimately decided against it.

Chace said the house attracts people who love Victorian houses but don’t want to restore one themselves.

“A lot of people don’t have the time, the energy and the experience to take on this kind of project,” said Chace. “... You could end up divorced or medicated…” Chace said about 120 people showed up at open houses held on a June weekend at Sunnymead, and there were “multiple offers” made before the contract was signed last week. She said most of the potential buyers have been people from New York who “have ties to Narragansett.”

The Eleftherios are already at work on their next project, a house in Middletown that is a departure for them because it is a modern house, about five years old. Before Sunnymead, Melanie Eleftherio, a former advertising executive and Realtor, had renovated and resold 15 other houses, including a McKim Mead & White-designed mansion at 25 Old Beach Rd. in Newport, which sold for $3.5 million.

But Eleftherio is hardly out of the historic-house renovation business, even though it may be a while before she takes on another project as extensive as Sunnymead, a house “that was just crying out to be fixed.”

“I have my eye on a couple of little things,” she said.

cdunn@projo.com