I should have started this two years ago in the late summer of 2006 when we bought this old house because that's when all the work began. We started ripping out and refinishing even before we moved in.
The beginning, that's where I'll start...
I'm a business consultant specializing in small business planning to expand to e-commerce. I travel a lot and quite often to small towns and communities. I had an appointment in a small farming community in Southwest Virginia one late summer afternoon. When I was finished I decided rather then take the interstate highway home I would take the scenic route through the country side. I passed a beautiful but neglected farm house with a "for sale by owner" sign in the yard. On impulse I whipped into the drive and began to look around. I wondered around the beautiful lawn with ancient Peonies just losing their bloom. I was fascinated by the old cement cattle trough in the yard that would have once been the barn yard. I explored the old barn that was solid and smelled like my childhood and brought back memories of a pony long gone.
I was in love! I called my husband and told him I had found "our" dream house. It had the farm house I wanted and the barn and acreage he wanted. Once I began to describe what I was looking at he became intrigued. I was so certain I had to have this house I called the owner, asked the price, told them I wanted it and I put the for sale sign in my trunk. I didn't care how neglected it was, how much work was involved because I wanted it. I could clearly see what it could be not what it was.
The price was right considering the location and the five acres of property with the house made it even more attractive. There was only one catch. We had just finished completely renovating the house we were currently living in less then three months earlier. We worked for two years, had turned a neglected 50's ranch with a breath taking view of the mountain into a "doll house", the description given the property by our Realtor. The biggest negative was there was only a lot, no property with the house and my husband wanted land. For that reason it didn't take very long to convince him to sell and start again.
Being a HGTV addict and having watched countless hours of
"Design to Sell" we put everything I've learned into practice. We leased a storage unit, emptied the house of everything personal and unnecessary clutter and "staged" the house to the hilt. Including baking cookies and fresh flowers. In a weeks time the house was shown 21 times and was sold within two weeks. Our house sold for double what we paid and we were left with a nice profit for beginning the work on the next house.
As I type this I hear saws and hammering on the floor above, a part of everyday life when renovating an old house.
This is the third house my husband and I have renovated, I say renovated not restored because I being who I am have to change things. The previous houses were not our dream house but they were solid houses in good locations that had great potential. We bought them with the intention of renovating them and selling for a profit which is exactly what me managed to do. Each decision was made with resale in mind so I didn't have the luxury of indulging in my personal taste which tends to be very traditional.
With each house we've bought "up". Our first "flip" was in 1999. A sweet 1920's 900 sq ft bungalow on a beautiful tree lined street in the city. A park across the street, a school two blacks away and a golf course within walking distance. The older residence were starting to pass away and the houses were being bought by young couples for starter homes. There was a lot of homes around us being renovated and the location was perfect. We knew when we bought it we wouldn't stay, it was just too small and we liked country living. But there was too much potential to pass up for such a cheap price. By the way, we do our flips the hard way, we live in them while we're flipping them. That way we don't have to rush, we pay cash as we go and the profit in the end is greater. We worked on that house for two years doubled our investment and bought another house, the ranch I mentioned earlier.
The ranch was 1600 sq ft and just not my taste. The greatest advantage this house had was the view. It had a 180 degree view of the Blue Ridge Mountains that people take vacations to see, it was stunning. It was surrounded by thick forest with not another house in sight and was within walking distance to a stocked trout stream. But the surrounding land was not for sale and never would be at a price we could afford. At any time it could have been sold to a developer and the privacy we treasured would be lost.
The house sat on a sloping lot that gave it the appearance of grandness. It had great curb appeal but once you stepped inside it scared the average buyer to death. The property had been tied up in probate for several years and had sat empty all the while. The previous owner was a chain smoker and spent ten years living in only one room of the house. The nicotine was thick on the walls and ceilings and the smell was unbearable. The water had been turned off so long the washers in the faucets had dry rot. When the water was turned on every faucet in the house shot water in every direction. It was just a nightmare! But the price was right and we negotiated terms that would have made any home renovator green with envy.
We worked on it for three months before it was livable and it took just over two years to complete but when we finished it was beautiful.
Now here we go, starting again, another old neglected gem waiting for our magic. The house was built in 1926. The house is 2200 sq ft with a barn, a two car detached garage with a one bedroom apartment above, it all sits on 5 acres of farm land zoned agricultural. It had been bought from the original owner’s estate by a realtor that intended to flip it himself but we bought it before he started working on it. He would have cleaned it, modernized it and sold it as quickly as he could. We’re going to take our time, spare no expense and it a beautiful home when were finished not just another house.
There has never been a lot done to the house so all the original charm is still in place. A kitchen was attached to the back of the house in the 40’s and a very small bath was added around the 
same time. The rooms are big with high ceilings but there are not that many rooms, so by count of rooms it rather small. It’s actually has only two bedrooms yet the house is almost 2200 sq ft. We’re adding another 600 sq feet with a master bath and a walk-in closet on the second level over the kitchen. We’re enclosing a once screened in porch with windows removing a wall and expanding the kitchen to double its current size.
Before we moved in we had all the original red oak floors stripped and refinished. We added
central heat and air, had the electrical replaced and replaced every window and door. Since then we’ve divided the entry into a smaller space, added a coat closet and an alcove office for me in a pass through between the entry and dining room. We added another closet under the stairs. We built a wall to separate the bathroom from the dining room. We have plans for renovating the original bath but we’re not starting on it till we have the new bath finished up stairs. The dining room has been finished and the entry along with stripping the stairway. Everything else hinged on getting the second story project finished.
This past summer we planned to start the second story construction. It had been an unusually dry summer and we kept a watch on the weather forecast before we began ripping the roof off the kitchen. We gathered family and friends and started the demolition. The roof was removed, we took a break to grill some steaks for our helpers and it began to rain. Everyone scrambled to cover the roofless kitchen but it was too little too late. The rain 
poured and the thunder and lightening rumbled. Within a couple hours the water was gushing through the cabinets gathering in the floor and the old plaster ceiling began to collapse. We hadn’t intended to remove the old ceiling but Mother Nature had other plans. It rained for a week non stop. The mess surpassed anything we had ever gotten into before but with help and determination we cleaned it up and moved on.
Now we’re starting to put plumbing and electrical in the upstairs bath. We bought the fixtures and I’m planning the tile design.
When all the renovations are complete including the barn we plan to use the apartment above the garage as an equine inn, including full hook-ups for horse trailers with accommodations. We’re located very near an interstate highway and offer easy access to travelers with horses. We’ve planted a row of Leyland Cypress trees along the ridge and the sides of our property to create a natural screen between us and a housing complex behind us. With this in mind we’ve named the farm Leyland Ridge Farm and that will be the name of the inn, Leyland Ridge Equine Inn.
I don’t plan to write in the blog everyday, just as things progress on the house. I designed a website for the farm, if you would like to see what I’ve described visit our website at www.leylandridgefarm.com.
