She spent 10 months restoring a 160-year-old house; now Lauren Iraeta is reconnecting former families with pieces of their history

When Lauren Iraeta and her husband bought an old waterfront house, they expected to spend their weekends repairing timber and replacing outdated plumbing.Instead, after a 10-month renovation, the 44-year-old real estate agent became a historical investigator. She began researching the people who had lived in the house and reconnecting their descendants with forgotten family items and records.In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE magazine, Iraeta explained how restoring the historic home turned into a long-term effort to record the stories of the people who had lived there over the past 150 years.

Restoring a sea captain’s waterfront home

The couple bought the waterfront property as experienced home renovators looking for their next project. Iraeta was not immediately convinced, but the house’s unusual historic features soon changed her mind.“My husband fell in love with this house instantly and I needed a little bit of convincing,” Iraeta told PEOPLE. “The charm of the house, the front porch and the widow’s walk at the very top is something you could never find in any other house.”The physical renovation took 10 months of continuous work. The couple made structural repairs, opened some interior walls, and added two bathrooms while keeping the original character of the house.“It ended up being a huge labor of love,” Iraeta said. “The house still looks like an old house, but doesn’t have old problems.”After the renovation was finished, Iraeta began searching local records and archives. Her research suggested that the house was probably built around 1860 by a sea captain, making it much older than local town records had indicated.

Names carved inside the widow’s walk

Her search became more interesting when she explored the widow’s walk, a rooftop feature where wives historically watched the water for ships returning home.Inside the space, earlier residents had carved and written their names into the wooden walls.“In that room on the wall are names written and carved into the wood,” Iraeta told PEOPLE. She has since created a complete list of the property’s owners and the years they lived there. “I have the name of every owner and when they lived here.”Her research eventually led her to descendants of former residents, including the elderly grandchildren of the home’s third owners. The siblings, now in their 80s and living in California, did not know that their late father had written a 10-page account of his childhood in the house and the surrounding community around 1910.Iraeta found the family and gave them a copy of the document.“Their children didn’t know this existed,” Iraeta told PEOPLE. “I recently tracked them down in California and gave them a copy.”

Discovering forgotten history in the backyard

Iraeta’s research has also helped explain physical discoveries around the property. One example is a small pet cemetery hidden in the backyard.She continues to contact descendants of former residents in an effort to learn the names and stories of the animals buried there.After 21 years as a real estate agent, Iraeta said the project has changed the way she thinks about houses and property ownership.“Knowing that every house has a story and how emotional it is when you leave a house, for whatever reason it may be, I feel fortunate to be here and feel very connected to the people that lived here before us,” Iraeta said in the PEOPLE report. “I’m excited to see what else I uncover.”