Erika Howsare

Robin and Craig Ellis were searching for the perfect name for their Keswick property when they took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A sign directed their gaze across a ravine to a scree field—a place where fragments of rock covered a slope. These pieces, the remnants of a large boulder, are called “talus”: […]

This is a full circle kind of story. A couple of years ago, on this very page, we got some advice from local contractor Troy Yancey about renovating an Earlysville ranch house that was then on the market. Troy recommended opening some walls to improve flow, adding a fourth bedroom and a few other fixes. […]

Upholstered walls. A bright red hallway. Gilded chandeliers. When Holly and Kevin Davis bought their house in Fry’s Spring in 2012, it was, in an endearing way, over the top. “The house just evoked so much color and charm,” says Kathleen Conroy, a designer with Kenny Ball Design. Along with her colleague, Chloe Ball, she […]

When you’re building a new house on a wooded hilltop—a house whose design prioritizes views of the outdoors—the landscape is a crucial piece of the puzzle. From within Ron Harris’ Fluvanna County house, the woodsy surroundings are a constant presence, especially through the south wall, which is made almost entirely of glass. Finished in 2007, […]

Often, brand-new houses are dubbed “homes” by real estate agents. That’s an untruth, because if it hasn’t been lived in, it’s nobody’s home. Findowrie, as its atmospheric name would suggest, dwells on the far opposite end of the spectrum. It’s been unoccupied for decades, but nonetheless it’s dripping with habitation, layered with time, all but […]

Talk about a house being great for entertaining. When opulent Albemarle House was built in the early 1980s by Patricia Kluge and her then-husband, media mogul John Kluge, they aimed to create a mansion fit to welcome royals and celebrities. As fate and fortune would have it, 30 years later, the 45-room home has become […]

It was a kind of magic trick. An old house in Fifeville, sandwiched closely between its neighbors, was demolished to make way for a new, modern dwelling—and presto change-o, the new house reuses and features many of the materials from the old. It’s as though existing DNA was scrambled to create a novel animal. “You […]

By the time you read this, downtown Charlottesville should have its movie theater back. But it’s not just a matter of reopening the old Regal theater. The new Violet Crown Cinema, which now stands in its place, will be an entirely different animal. “I always think of these places as boutique cinemas: very bespoke, very […]

Rolling drive? Check. Board fencing? Check. You’ve got your mature oaks and boxwoods, your brick façade, your white columns. And, naturally, there is a historical connection to a towering figure of early American history (Patrick “Give Me Liberty” Henry). It doesn’t get much more classic than Oak Grove, a 131-acre estate outside Scottsville. Visiting it […]