Vieira has a Tuscan Hudson Valley home

NEW YORK, July 20 (UPI) -- TV host Meredith Vieira has renovated her Hudson Valley, N.Y., home, turning it into a comfortable, eco-friendly Tuscan villa, Traditional Home said.

The new anchor on NBC's "Today" show had been toying with the idea of a modest renovation when the project turned into a complete makeover, the magazine said in its September issue.

"It hurt to admit, but we really had been living like the Beverly Hillbillies, except on the wrong coast," Vieira said. "(Her husband) Richard and I would sit in our lounge chairs in our underwear on Sunday mornings along our stretch of driveway, drinking coffee and reading the newspapers."

The couple realized what they wanted was a house that brought the outdoors inside, so they wouldn't have to live in the driveway, she said.

She said they both love Italy -- particularly the villas in Tuscany -- and the light in the Hudson River Valley, north of New York City, seemed similar. Vieira told Traditional Home what they wanted was "not fancy, but elegant and inviting, with an emphasis on texture, color and flow."

Both Her husband and father-in-law have Multiple Sclerosis, Vieira said, so the entire house is handicapped-accessible.