Head of the class
 |
Location: Louisa
Price: $324,700
MLS #: 456973
“Gracious” is the word that comes to mind here, even if the phrase “former maid’s quarters” is a bit too patrician for your taste. (The FMQ is now an office, by the way.) This is a lovely 1912 foursquare in the town of Louisa any tweedy professor would be thrilled to inhabit: a backyard for gazing at between brilliant sentences, a big dining room for department dinner parties, and no fewer than five bedrooms to accommodate everyone when the kids are on break from Harvard.
On the water
 |
Location: Branchlands
Price: $319,900
MLS #: 455107
You’re paying for two things here, and isolation isn’t one of them (it’s a townhouse). Number one: location, minutes from anything on the 29N corridor. Number two: a lake view. What grabbed us is the deck and the sunroom, both of which really are rather charming here—the latter has big windows and looks over the water. And the place packs a lot into its 2,000 square feet: a mother-in-law suite, three full baths…did we mention that sweet little sunroom?
Pink house, killer view
 |
Location: Afton
Price: $750,000
MLS #: 441859
This is a place your average Anne of Green Gables fan will love: It’s a three-bedroom 1910 farmhouse on 13-plus acres, including a creekside meadow, and it’s got Victorian touches like a big porch and contrasting window trim (mauve on rose!). Looks like a romantic life: family dinners under the chandelier, strolls down the tree-lined driveway, pensive gazes toward Pilot Mountain. Maybe even a garden party. Of course, such romance doesn’t come cheap: The price is two and a half times Nelson’s median.