Month: July 2022

“My husband and I used to take walks along Locust Avenue, and we just adored this one old house,” says Bryant Taylor. “It had an amazing yard, with lots of green space—and both of us love a project.” For the Taylors, “project” is an understatement: Alan is co-founder and president of Riverbend Development, and Bryant works for Studio Figure, an architectural and interior design firm. 

In spring 2020, the Taylors’ Locust Avenue dream house came on the market—and the couple put a bid in before they had even seen the inside. There was no doubt the house needed work. Built in 1903, its structure was still sound and many historic details were still there, but a renovation about a decade ago had left issues. An extension had been added on the back of the house to create a kitchen and master bedroom suite, but a remnant of the house’s original exterior wall cut the galley kitchen off from the adjoining family room. Still, the rooms were spacious, with large windows, the exterior was in good shape, and the unfinished attic could be turned into a great playroom for their daughter and her friends. And then there was that huge back yard…

“We dreamed of making it the exact home we wanted,” Bryant recalls. And living in a townhouse with a toddler and three dogs was getting a little cramped. So the Taylors took on this new project. 

The major challenge was taking out the brick-bearing wall between the kitchen and the family room and installing a huge I-beam to carry the load. Alan says Bryant acted as general contractor for most of the renovation work, but for this particular task the couple brought in Ace Contracting. In updating the kitchen, they kept the appliances installed in the earlier renovation, but replaced the counters and lighting to create a unified look for the newly joined spaces. 

Much of the rest of the work needed was to be expected in renovating an older home. The entire interior needed repainting (which meant removing some pretty dated wallpaper in places) and all of the bathrooms needed upgrading with new fixtures and tile. The Taylors wanted hardwood floors, which meant replacing much of the heart pine flooring on the first floor. Luckily, the upstairs flooring only needed to be stripped and clear-coated. All the lighting was replaced (“These are all LED now,” Alan points out), even the chandeliers that the Taylors hoped were period but turned out to be plastic (“from Lowe’s,” he notes with disappointment.)

These tasks brought both Bryant’s organizational skills and her design instincts into play. While she hadn’t trained in interior design, Bryant had worked closely with Jeannette Andamasaris, principal partner and director of interior design at Studio Figure, on the Taylors’ previous home, a townhouse on C&O Row. Working together regularly “had given us a shared language,” says Andamasaris—so much so that Bryant is now on staff at the firm.

“Bryant wanted to bring in more color while keeping the [historic] feel” of the house, Andamasaris recalls. Most of the house’s original touches—two leaded windows, the decorative trim, glass-fronted built-in cupboards in the dining room, pocket doors between the dining room and the front parlor (now a den/music room) with its wall of built-in shelves—remain. But Bryant’s eclectic design style gives the interior a contemporary and whimsical feel. 

The original large windows on the north-facing façade, and more large windows added to the house’s east and south sides in the earlier renovation, provide lots of natural light. That light, along with high ceilings and the newly refinished hardwood floors, allowed Bryant to use dark, high-intensity colors on the walls—a warm grayish teal in the dining room, and matte black in the den/music room—without making the spaces feel closed-in. The kitchen/dining/family room space, on the other hand, is all windows and white walls, with contrast provided by the black I-beam across the ceiling, the black spindle dining chairs, and the galley’s black-and-white Cambia quartz counters. 

Those zebra-striped counters are one of Bryant’s signature touches, because she’s made sure there’s a little wildlife in every room, whether it’s the antler centerpiece on the dining table, the oryx head over the den’s fireplace, the longhorn skull in the master bedroom (Alan is a University of Texas grad), or the mounted whitetail deer’s rump in the bathroom. There’s even an animal’s head over their daughter’s bed—it’s a pastel unicorn, as befits a 5-year-old girl.

“We did a lot of funky stuff,” Bryant admits. But it was all part of making this dream house into their unique dream home. The den has plump cushioned chairs with moveable arms, so Alan can more comfortably play guitar with his music buddies. The attic was made into the perfect child’s play space—indestructible carpet tiles, a pull-down screen and a popcorn popper for movie night, a kitchenette for snack supplies, built-in alcove beds for sleepovers. “We want this to be a place where the kids want to come, and their parents know we’re here,” says Bryant.

To keep that home entertainment vibe going, the couple is adding a pool and pavilion in their large backyard for family and friends. And “both our parents live far away,” Bryant notes, so construction is already underway to replace the tiny garage and small outbuilding with a two-car garage-cum-guest house. All of which still leaves plenty of open space for the kid-sized moveable soccer goal, all the play gear, and the coop for the free-range chickens. 

After all, the Taylors love a project.

The tiny house craze may have tempered a touch, but in the right application, downscale domiciles can still bring it big time.

Crozet-based John and Lori O’Connor contracted with Charlottesville Area Builders to construct a new farmhouse several years ago. They didn’t plan to add a guest house but came to the idea as an afterthought during construction. The empty nesters were downsizing their living quarters by roughly half but realized they’d like some additional space for their two college-aged children when they came home to visit.

The O’Connors’ new home sat on eight acres, so space wasn’t a constraint in dreaming up their guest house. But after looking at several design schemes for the additional room, they settled on a tiny house-style abode that would look much like a barn on their rural property.

“They were building some brand new homes behind our old house, and one was a white, modern farmhouse,” John says. “They had an attached garage and painted it red. It looked a little strange, but I ended up loving it.”

The couple settled on a similar contrasted combination for their own new build. They even knocked on the door of the homeowners behind their previous house to learn the exact color red that would make their guest space pop (it was called caliente).

In addition to striking the O’Connors’ fancy, tiny house styling served several purposes for the guest house. The space, which is about 320 square feet including its lofted sleeping area, takes up only a 10×22-foot area and has everything the couples’ grown children—or vacation renters—might need in a single-room efficiency: a kitchen with a hotplate and microwave (ovens are out of code), bathroom with shower, toilet, and vanity, living room area, loft, tankless hot water heater, and mini-split heating and cooling element.

Critically, the barn-shaped structure, positioned about 50 feet from the main house, is fronted by a window wall to maximize the mountain view that in part called the O’Connors to their new home in the first place. The windows include a sliding glass door for easy entry and a trapezoidal pane positioned above, according to Mike and Isobel Sadler of Charlottesville Area Builders.

“We were influenced by the tiny house movement, but at the same time, we wanted it to complement the modern farmhouse,” Isobel says. “It’s kind of a modern nod to a barn. That’s where you get that beautiful bright red color and the black metal roof and the expansive front windows.”

The tiny house’s bedroom loft frees up the full 220 downstairs square feet for living, the structure’s plumbing is tied to the main farmhouse’s septic system, and the mini-split requires no ductwork.

“You are at 14 feet at the peak in the main space, and that really adds volume to the room,” Mike says. “You think, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s going to be very crowded.’ But even now that they have it furnished, it feels spacious. It was very exciting and fun for us to maximize the space.”

Sadler says the key to the styling was simple: Make everything guests might need a little smaller. Smaller shower, smaller vanity, smaller kitchen sink. They used the same matte black plumbing fixtures featured in the main house and opted for luxury vinyl tile flooring that would be resistant to traffic, and shiplapped the exterior.

The O’Connors say they’ve been happy with the results, as have their kids.

“They love staying here,” John says. “They basically take turns living in there.”

For an artist moving to Charlottesville from the West Coast, dashed urban hopes led to a near-downtown dream renovation.

The homeowner quickly learned the loft-style living and working space she wanted wasn’t currently available, but she says she got lucky. She found a single-family home on Lexington Avenue that had already undergone a modern renovation and fit her minimalist style.

So what would it take to make the place her own? Only an ambitious three-phase project, working closely with Alloy Workshop, to first make the main living space move-in ready, then turn a halfhearted garage structure into an additional dwelling unit and artist’s workshop, and finally a return to the main house to modernize the kitchen and create a more open-concept floor plan.

“Working with others helps you tell a story you wouldn’t tell yourself,” Alloy Workshop’s Dan Zimmerman says. “There is an efficiency about the new space.”

Phase 1

Why break a renovation project into three phases? For Zimmerman and his new client, it was all about continuous livability. The bulk of the work would be in phase 2, but the first phase was imperative to bring the home up to the new owner’s standards before move-in. That meant renovating a bathroom and bedroom and turning another bedroom into a home office. 

According to the homeowner and Zimmerman, phase 1 was all about the details—a panel in the bedroom bookshelves that slides down to reveal an otherwise hidden television, matching the new paneling to the existing fireplace style, adding a new window and door to close off the space.

Adding storage and using space effectively was also critical. “Under the stairs, it was all open,” Zimmerman says. “We created some much-needed storage, working around the return deep under the stairway. This might not jump out, but it was one of the more valuable things we did in a day-to-day sense.”

Phase 2

The second project stage required crafting three structures, all facing the street behind Lexington: a fully appointed guest apartment beneath an exhaustively designed art studio and astride an economical carport. The studio is the project’s Mona Lisa. Sitting on a 480-square-footprint, the studio opens from a stairway leading away from the home on a pithy office space, separated from the main artroom by a half bath.

The central studio space features details developed through collaboration between an obsessive artist and attentive architect. “Our secret is to ask questions,” Zimmerman says. “It is not to pretend like we know best, but instead ask questions of our end users. Then, we mix that with our experience and say, ‘Oh, that reminds me of this.’”

Clever details include counter-to-ceiling cabinets, which neatly hide art supplies, a massive central desk raised to standing height, homasote siding functioning as both bulletin board and soundproofing, three automated skylights on the space’s north side to avoid direct sunlight, custom flat drawers for paper-based artwork, and articulating light fixtures suspended from the ceiling. “You can move them so you can put the light exactly where you need it,” Zimmerman says.

Beneath the studio on the same footprint is an ADU suited for visiting youngsters and oldsters—namely the homeowner’s parents. It features a small kitchen, living/dining area, bathroom, and private bedroom. The neighboring carport features a modern gate design to enclose the property, and the building’s exterior is intended to match the main home, giving the impression that both structures were built at the same time. “Our driving goal was to make it look like it was always supposed to be there,” Zimmerman says. 

Phase 3

Alloy focused on the rear of the main home in phase 3, opening the kitchen area and allowing it to flow into the outdoor space. The architects removed a wall to join the breakfast nook and newly renovated kitchen. “Once it is open, you can just see that is the way it should be,” Zimmerman says. “Our drive was not to do things that weren’t useful.”

Landscaping was a significant part of the project, as well, and the team completed an extensive outdoor project about a year after phase 3 concluded. Alloy and the homeowner contracted with a landscape architect with whom they were both familiar, and the result was a patio and backyard that seamlessly linked the main home and new structure. 

“We knew that was coming, so we did everything else with that in mind,” the homeowner says. “We initially wanted a slightly different design—a covered walkway from the garage to the house—and couldn’t do it, but in the end, I think it actually turned out better.”

Alloy and the homeowner built as much under roof as is allowed by local regulations, but the goal was always to do so “tastefully.”

“Going into it, I didn’t know what my style was, really,” the homeowner says. “But I am detail-oriented, and I am a pretty highly organized person. It all has a practical orientation.”

With the real estate market still red hot, you may have noticed a new trend on Instagram: buyers selling their houses fully furnished. They don’t have to pay to pack up and haul all their worldly goods elsewhere, and sellers get a custom-decorated house with minimal unpacking. But before you decide to jump on this trend, consider two crucial words of advice: Don’t, maybe?

For one thing, selling your house with all its furnishings might not be as common as the internet makes it look, especially in our area. “On rare occasions, a seller might know that a certain set or furniture piece won’t fit into their new place, and [offer it] for sale to the buyer or others,” says Nest Realty’s Jessica Russo. “This is more likely happen if it is a second home or vacation rental, like a Wintergreen place.”

Luxury homes and their high-end designer furniture, or getaway homes in vacation spots, are most likely to sell with their furnishings. In the former case, buyers might not want to throw out a fancy decorator’s work, especially if they like the overall look and mood the furnishings create. In the latter, getting a vacation spot fully furnished saves time and trouble for folks who want to start enjoying their new home away from home as soon as possible.

But aside from those very specific cases, “I don’t believe offering the furnishing with the home makes the sale more appealing,” Russo says—and she wouldn’t advise her clients to try it. Nor does bundling furnishings with the home they occupy tend to offer the kind of financial windfall sellers might be imagining.

Most buyers don’t want a home prefilled with someone else’s furniture. And even if they do, the highly personal nature of furnishings means they might not want yours. No matter how elegantly you’ve framed and lit it, your collection of, say, black-velvet paintings of cats dressed as Elvis impersonators might actually drive potential buyers away.

Throwing in furnishings won’t bump up the value of your house, either. Banks only issue mortgages for land and buildings, so buyers can’t tuck the additional cost of furnishings into their home loan. Potential sellers will have to negotiate a separate, special contract for the furniture itself, and report the money they make as income to the IRS. 

And while it’s relatively easy to guess a home’s worth by looking at its appraisal price and the sale amounts for nearby, similar homes, furniture doesn’t work that way. Even the fanciest, trendiest pieces start losing value the instant you buy them. Expect to get back only a fraction of what you paid for that leather sofa or mahogany bed. Potential sellers need to go online and search item-by-item for reasonable pricing for the furniture they want to sell, and those furnishings need to be in good condition. (If you have small children in your house, well, good luck with that.) Even if you do find an interested buyer, you may need to be ready to slash your asking price for furniture to seal the deal.

If all these hurdles don’t keep you from trying to sell your furniture alongside your home, Russo advises you try it only if your gorgeous furniture in great shape has been carefully staged and photographed for maximum impact. Or maybe just resign yourself to the reality of a moving van, packing tape, and lots of cardboard boxes.

“You gotta love old houses to live in one,” says master stonemason Mike Ondrick. “If you keep it anywhere near correct [to its era], you’re going to live with cold walls and damp in the basement sometimes.”

Ondrick should know: He’s a founder and project manager for Dominion Traditional Building Group, which specializes in restoring historic structures using historic methods. He’s currently working on a mid-19th century house in Charlottesville’s North Downtown neighborhood—because the home’s owners love old houses.

“We bought this house because no one had screwed it up yet,” says the current owner, who purchased the Civil War-era residence in 2018. The family has been living there ever since—through the pandemic, and in the midst of replacing the roof, fixing gutters, and restoring windows. Because the house is part of a designated Historic District, any work to preserve or upgrade the building has to be approved. 

After the roof, the owners tackled the four-room basement, which had been ignored for decades. The previous owner had started to create an apartment there—pouring a concrete floor, sealing the walls, putting up drywall, and hanging electrical wiring from the ceiling—but the space was still a dank, dark disaster. The current owners, seeing the value of a basement apartment, resolved to do it right.

The wiring, heating and water pipes (the house’s original water system was gravity-run) were concealed in the walls and ceiling. Most of the window openings had been covered up with plexiglas or plywood; the original windows were removed, cleaned, and repainted, then reassembled and reinstalled. The bricked-up fireplaces were re-opened and reconstructed. All the wall sealant was removed so the brick could be cleaned, prepared for new mortar, and repointed.

Most of the contractors he asked for estimates kept talking about sealant and drywall, the owner says. “Dominion came in and said, ‘We can fix this basement.’ And they did.”

The first rule in working on historic masonry, says Ondrick (who has worked on more than 1,800 historic buildings in his 30-year career) is “don’t introduce any modern materials. Modern cement mortar is too strong—it sets up too quick, it won’t let the water out of the brick [to bond with the mortar].” And sealant? “You don’t want to seal your structure up—these old buildings need to breathe.” Ondrick mixes mortar specific to each particular building, using only lime and sand. 

Ondrick is just one of the “old house-lovers” who has put his skills into this restoration. “One of the best things about doing this house,” says the owner, “has been the people you meet.”

To re-create the basement fireplaces’ wooden mantels, Bruce Courson—who with his wife Virginia Robinson owns Blue Ox Custom Builders in Mineral—copied the one remaining original in the first-floor parlor. Blue Ox also made the custom cupboards and cabinets in the basement stair hall, as well as the replica moldings and baseboards. (Bruce happens to be the brother of Glen Courson, a plasterer on Dominion’s crew.) 

The search for period hardware led to Ed Donaldson—“the king of American locks,” the owner calls him—who restored 25 rim locks throughout the house and supplied four restored 1850s locks to replace ones that were missing.

Restoring the basement windows—and all the others, 60 in total—was handled by Justin Pincham, owner of Halcyon Contractors; he invented a steam-box, which made it possible to remove the lead paint safely and salvage the remaining original glass. The disassembled windows and glass were shipped to Shenandoah Restoration in Quicksburg, where owner Mike Watkinson and his team reglazed every sash with linseed putty, primed, and painted them. 

“You do feel like they are coming in and taking up where the workmen from 1861 left off,” the owner says. Admittedly, restoring the house has taken over their lives—and they still haven’t started on the first and second floors. But that’s what happens when you love old houses.

Over the last few years, Beth Ann Kallen, co-owner of home furnishing and interior design firm Folly, has been helping a client redecorate the family’s home in Blandemar Farm Estates room by room. For the latest project, the master bedroom, Kallen (a mother of three) knew just what the mother of four needed: “I wanted her to have a refuge.” 

Kallen’s design process always starts with a fabric. This time, her jumping-off point was a Sanderson floral in blues and green, with daisies and butterflies providing yellow accents. “Just a lovely palette,” says Kallen. “I like bringing in colors from nature, and I’ve been working with this client for years—I know she loves blue.”

The fabric became drapes for the windows on three sides of the room, set off against walls in a warm white. The Matouk Schumacher bed linen (white with a blue-and-green geometric trim) is keyed to the drapes’ colors, with a cadet blue wool on the headboard as a darker accent. The Stark carpet, a pattern called “Kubra,” in soft blue and white, picks up the theme: “I wanted the rug to fill the whole room, to give it warmth,” Kallen says. (Of course, the fireplace helps there, too.)

Another restful feature is a window bay with a small Hickory Chair sofa, upholstered in an easy-to-clean Crypton fabric—after all, this is a household full of kids and dogs. Blue-and-white floor-standing ginger jars at each end reinforce the motif, while the client’s dresser was repainted a muted blue and fitted with antique brass pulls. 

Every room needs some accent pieces, and Kallen included two she’s especially fond of: a curvilinear cartouche-shaped mirror bordered in a buff rattan, and a dresser lamp made from an ochre Italian ceramic jar Kallen found at an antique shop. Both of these pieces pick up the yellow in the fabric that inspired the whole décor. 

And the result? A cool and quiet space to relax and regroup.